













r-. [' 



I: \ 



339 
H859 



i«^l 



<i<''<i:-i' ■:,'''■: 



I •;= 'TT'^"'; ■' ^^"'■'^^'^i '*. '•"'' r:TT:.T''vV 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



©lap. iupgrijll !f ij»- 

Shelf. T'L2k^ 

— , m ^^ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Patent Soliciting 

AND 

United States Court Practice, 



AT 



HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES, 

No. 119 South Fourth Street, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, 

BY HOWSON &. SON, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Corgress, at Washington. 



Jh-ess of 

Times Printing JSouse. 

725 Chestnut Street, 

Philadelphia. 



HOWSONS' 
PATENT OFFICES, 

119 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



BRANCH OFFICE— 605 7th ST., 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Patent Soliciting^ 




AND 



^ 



United States Court Practice, 

With Remarks concerning Specifications and Claims, Drawings, 

Official Examination, Appeals, Reissues, Searches 
^ and Reports, Court Practice, Interferences, 

Q r Foreign Patents, etc. 

3 



Second Edition. 

/ — 

H. HOWSON. C. HOWSON, 

Engineer and Solicitor of ■ Att*y-at-Law, and Counsel h 

PATENTS. PATENT CASES. 

Communications to be addressed to 

HowsoN & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, 

BY HOWSON & SON, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 






K'\' 



Copyright, 1881, 
HOWSON & SONS. 






A 






V CONTENTS. 

Page 

PREFACE, . . . . . V-x 

ORGANIZATION OF HOVVSONS' PATENT OFFICES, 11, 12 

FACILITIES FOR TRANSACTING BUSINESS, . . 13 

Principal Offices, Philadelphia, . . 14, 15 

Assistants and Clerk<?, . . . .16 

Office Hours, .... 17 

Branch Office, Washington, . . .18 

Library, ..... 19-22 

SOLICITING DEPARTMENT, .... 23 

Introductory, .... 24-27 

Preliminary Examinations, . . .28, 29 

Models, . . . , . 30,31 

Specifications and Claims, . . . 32-35 

Drawings, . . . . . 36, 37 

Prosecution of Applications, . , .38-41 

Examiners, . . . . 42, 43 

Time Required to Obtain Patents, . . 44 

APPEALS, ...... 45 

To Examiners-in-Chief, . . . .45 

To Commissioner in Person, . . 46 

Bills in Equity to Obtain Patents, . . 46 
Interlocutory Appeals, . . .47, 48 



Page 
REISSUES, ...... 49-52 

DISCLAIMERS, ..... 53,54 

HOSPITAL CASE^ . . . . .55,56 

REPORTS AS TO THE VALIDITY OF PATENTS, . 57-60 

PURCHASE, SALE, AND PUBLICATION OF PATENTS. 61,62 

CAVEATS. . . . . . . 63,64 

PATENTS FOR DESIGNS, .... 65 

TRADEMARKS, LABELS, COPYRIGHTS, . . 66 

Trademarks, . . . . . 66, 67 

Labels, ..... 68 

Copyrights, ..... 68-71 

SUMMARY OF CHARGES, .... 72, 73 

LAW DEPARTMENT, ..... 75 

Introductory, .... 76-78 

Our U. S. Court Practice, ... 78 

Interferences. . . • . 79-86 

FOREIGN DEPARTMENT, .... 87-102 

PUBLICATIONS OF HOWSON & SON, . . 103-105 

OFFICIAL CERTIFICATES, .... 106-110 

REFERENCES, ..... Ul-122 

SPECIMENS OF DRAWINGS, .... 




PREFACE. 

f^^ ^ -J ryiHIS pamphlet is issued at a date when 
r^ <; V^^ A the twenty-sixth year of the existence 
of our house is nearly completed. 

Since these offices were established, 
on a modest scale, in 1853, by the pres- 
ent head of the firm, a great change has 
taken place in the public estimation 
of and demand for patents and patent 
property. In 1853, the number of patents granted for new 
inventions was 846; in 1878, the number was 12,345. The 
increase has been continuous with the exception of slight 
fluctuations during the early years of the war and during 
the more recent financial depression. 

It may not be out of place here to remark that this 
continued increase in the number of patents, has been 
proportionate to the increase of manufactures and the 
introduction of new industries. 

Curiously enough, while a few of our law makers, 
blind to or ignoring the relation of patents to the pro- 
gress of the useful arts, have endeavored to legislate 
against the interests of inventors, foreign countries are 
gradually adopting patent systems more or less like our 
own. 

First, Canada adopted a new patent law as liberal 
as its former laws were oppressive ; more recently, the 
German Empire, in spite of urgent opposition, established 
a system resembling our own in many particulars ; Spain 
followed suit ; the subject is being agitated in Switzerland 
and Russia, and even conservative England is likely to 
adopt mo-e liberal laws. 



VI HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

Early in the history of this establishment, the in- 
creased activity among inventors which has accompanied 
a rapid development of the industrial arts in a country of 
vast resources, was foreseen, and preparations were made 
to meet the requirements of a growing business. 

It was seen that a plentiful supply of books of ref- 
erence relating to patents and manufactures must con- 
stitute the labor-saving machinery for the ready and " 
accurate transaction of patent business ; and a liberal 
expenditure of money has resulted in a library believed 
to be the most extensive private reference library, of its 
kind, in the country. 

In 1868, the original offices were abandoned, and 
possession taken of the more commodious premises now 
occupied in Forrest Buildings, 119 South Fourth Street, 
and, at the same time, a branch office was opened in 
Washington. 

Prior to 1869, the business of these offices had been 
restricted to the soliciting of United States and foreign 
patents; prosecuting contested cases before the Patent 
Office ; and preparing for hearing, before the United States 
Courts, cases in which we retained counsel ; but in that 
year our Mr. Charles Howson took charge of a special 
legal department of the office. This union, in the same 
establishment, of Patent Office with Court practice has 
been successfully carried out, and has been as advanta- 
geous to our clients as to ourselves. 



It has been our experience that the most satisfactory, 
appreciative and successful clients are those who have 
the best knowledge of their true relation, as patentees, to 



PREFACE. VII 

the public ; partly for this reason, and partly to save time 
in preliminary consultation, we published in 1872, mainly 
for the use of inventors, the ** American Patent System,'* 
which has passed through three editions. 

In 1877, Messrs. Porter & Coates published our 
"Brief Treatise on Patents,'* which has been highly 
commended by the authorities of the Patent Office, and 
has been used as a preliminary text-book in that Bureau. 

In organizing these offices, our Mr. H. Howson has 
brought to bear that regard for system, division of labor, 
and ample appliances for the performance of routine 
duties, which he acquired during his early experiences 
as a civil and mechanical engineer, the main aim of the 
organization being to relieve the heads of the office and 
their leading assistants from such duties as demand little 
experience, so that their time may be entirely devoted to 
the mental work of an exacting profession. 

We may be pardoned here for introducing the follow- 
ing quotation from Commissioner Spear's letter, which is 
published at the conclusion of this pamphlet. 

" The high character of your work is no doubt aided 
in accuracy and promptness by the admirable organiza- 
tion of your office, the best I ever saw, and by your 
extensive and well-selected library." 



One of the most noteworthy changes which has 
taken place during the last five or six years is the gradual 
acquisition, by inventors, of a knowledge of patent mat- 
ters qualifying them to look more to their own interests 
than formerly. 

From 1864 to 1868, applications for patents increased 



VIII IIOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

SO rapidly that the supply of experienced men to act the 
part of solicitors of patents, and advisers, was not equal 
to the demand ; and consequently so many inexperi- 
enced, incompetent and illiterate men entered the pro- 
fession, that in a short time they commenced to outbid 
each other for the patronage of inventors. 

Cheaper and cheaper terms were offered, the no 
patent, no pay, system was resorted to, specifications were 
scribbled out by boys or dictated to copyists, no more 
thought being devoted to them than to the filling up of 
pension blanks, and patents with any kind of claims 
were accepted without regard to the interests of the 
patentees. 

The consequence of all this was the flooding of the 
country with Avorthless patents, to the injury alike of 
inventors and the public, and the depreciation of jDatent 
property. 

Such mischiefs could not exist in an intelligent com- 
munity like ours without working their own remedy. 
Inventors and patentees began to think for themselves, 
and to inquire into the causes of their disappointments 
and losses. They have discovered that hours of intelligent 
labor at the hands of experienced men should be given to 
the duties which they had formerly intrusted to incompe- 
tent men, who gave to them neither time nor intelligence. 

Inventors are gradually taking the advice of the 
Commissioner of Patents as published in the Oflicial 
Gazette of August 27th, 1878. 

*' Let them exercise the same caution and judgment 
in selecting a patent solicitor, which a prudent man con- 
siders necessary in selecting any other professional man, 



PREFACE. IX 



a physician or conveyancer, for instance, for performing- 
duties which demand experience and exactitude." 



While one object of this pamphlet is to direct the 
attention of inventors, and those interested in patents, to 
the facihties which this estabhshment affords for trans- 
acting both the legal and soliciting branches of our pro- 
fession, and to obviate the necessity of time-consuming 
oral explanations of our mode of practice and system of 
charges, it has the further object of imparting general 
information on subjects with which all inventors should 
be familiar. 

Almost every inventor to whom a patent has been 
granted, and \\hose residence is consequently published 
in the Official Gazette, receives a hatful of cheap circulars 
and pamphlets mailed by solicitors who adopt this mode 
of seeking clients. 

Most of these advertising circulars and pamphlets 
are chiefly remarkable for the absence of information ; 
indeed, they appear to be so prepared as to keep inventors 
in the dark, and envelop patent practice in a cloud of 
mystery. 

This pamphlet is founded on the belief that there is 
nothing in the official routine of the Patent Office, noth- 
ing in the practice of soliciting patents, which an attorney 
who wants to deal fairly with his clients need conceal, 
and that candid information to inventors on patent prac- 
tice, in all its phases, must be beneficial alike to the 
inventor and his attorney. 

For this reason we have dwelt at considerable length 
on subjects to which we think the attention of inventors 



X HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

should be more especially directed, such as specifications 
and claims, the prosecution of applications for patents, 
official examinations, reissues, interferences, reports as 
to validity of patents, etc. 

The reader will find that in giving opinions freely 
and frankly on many subjects of importance, we have 
not forgotten to give reasons for these opinions, or to 
back them with quotations from reliable authorities. 

In order to thoroughly explain our own mode of 
practice, we have found it necessary to compare it with 
that adopted by other men in our profession, and to state 
freely our objections to practices which we consider ob- 
jectionable. 

The reader must not suppose, however, that in pass- 
ing our criticism of the practice of others, we arrogate to 
ourselves exceptional competency ; on the contrary, there 
are gentlemen in the profession for whose attainments 
and integrity, we, in common with others, have the 
greatest regard. 

In conclusion, we may express a hope, that while 
this little book serves all the purpose of a business 
pamphlet, the information which it contains may be of 
permanent service to the inventors into whose hands it 
may fall. /'\ 




PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 

SINCE the first edition of this book was 
pubhshed, two changes have been 
brought about, one being the enact- 
ment of a new Trademark law, the 
other, in which the interests of inven- 
tors are more directly involved, being 
the partial abolition of models in 
filing applications for patents. 
These subjects will be referred to in full, under the 
heads of "Models" and '^ Trademarks." 




We take this opportunity of addressing a few words 
of caution to those of our clients whose knowledge of 
patent matters is limited. For old inventors and pat- 
entees, the following remarks will be unnecessary, as 
they relate to subjects with which they have been made 
more or less familiar, in many instances by painful 
experiences. 

The maintenance of judicious secrecy should be 
observed, not only in carrying out inventions and during 
the pendency of applications for patents, but especially 
after the applications have been allowed, and before the 
patents are actually granted ; for an application may be 
arrested at any time prior to the absolute issue of the 
patent, and complications, in many cases fatal to the 
interests of inventors, have arisen through the failure of 
applicants to keep secret the facts relating to their pend- 
ing and allowed cases. 



8 HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

This advice has been suggested by an organized 
effort which has been recently made to obtain a knowl- 
edge of allowed applications, apparently for speculative 
purposes. 

Even after a patent has been procured, it is best for 
the patentee to be reticent about It, and especially con- 
cerning prospective remuneration, or profits actually 
derived from it. 

Wherever there is a successful inventor, it will be 
found that his success has been in a great measure due 
to the observance of the same prudent reticence about 
his patent property, as he maintains concerning any 
other property, and to the Avholesome avoidance of med- 
dling intruders. 

The losses of inventors, and the difficulties in which 
they become involved, are attributable in part to the- 
reckless style of preparing and prosecuting applications, 
and in part to the advice of professional men who have 
had neither training nor practice in patent matters. 

Older lawyers, of experience in general practice but 
not in patent litigation, are generally prudent enough to 
recommend clients to seek advice from those who are 
versed in that special practice ; but it is well known to 
every patent practitioner of standing in the country, that 
the great amount of premature, wasteful and unneces- 
sary patent litigation is largely due to young lawyers 
who have neither training in patent law or practice, nor 
the technical knowledge to enable them to undertake 
the duties they assume. 

A general knowledge of law does not qualify a man 
to act as adviser to patentees. It must be accompanied 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 9 

with an intimate familiarity with patent law, and with a 
technical and mechanical knowledge which should be 
applied in all cases before resort is had to patent litiga- 
tion. 

These remarks have been suggested by many recent 
cases which have come to the writer's knowledge, and 
in which the interests of patentees have been jeopardized 
by crude advice. 

Inventors and patentees will best serve their own 
interests by treating men who intrude their advice, seek 
to pry into their patent property and its surroundings, 
and personally solicit employment, in the same manner 
as they would trespassers on any other property. 

Competent men have neither the time nor inclina- 
tion to thrust their unasked for services on inventors, or 
to go about begging for patronage, 



i^f^t 



ona 




ID CHARGES. 

CHARGES 

WHEN THE INVENTIONS ARE OF SIMPLE CHARACTER, 
INCLUDING GOVERNMENT FEES. 



Preliminary Examination : 

Payable in advance, but deducted from fees for applica- 
tion if made, ..... 

Filing Caveat : 

Ag-ncyfee, ..... $15 

Government fee, ..... 10 

Ordinary Application for Patent : 

Agency fee, .... $40 | ^^^ 

First Government fee, . . . 15 J 

Both paid prior to filing of application. 
Second Government fee, . . . $20 

Payable after allowance of application but 
before grant of patent. 

Reissue of Invalid Patents : 



$75. 



Agency fee. 

Government fee, .... 


$50 

30 \ 


> $80. 


Application for Design Patent : 


1 




Agency fee, .... 
Government fee for patent of 3^ years, 

" '' 7 

14 " 


$20 
. 10 J 

15 
. 30 


> $30. 


Registry of Trademark : 


1 




Agency fee, .... 
Government fee, .... 


$15 
25 J 


> $40. 


Registry Label : 


] 




Agency fee, .... 
Government fee, .... 


$10 
. 6 J 


" $16. 



Note. — For extra fees in exceptional cases, see " Charges," page 72. 



II 



ORGANIZATION 
OF HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 



Soliciting Department. 
HENRY HOWSON, 

Engineer, and Solicitor of Patents, 

in charge of all cases before 

the U. S. Patent Office. 

Assistants. 

H. SMITH, 
Chief Clerk and Notary. 

H. HOWSON, Jr., 
Drawings. 



Law Department. 
CHARLES HOWSON, 

Attorney at Law and Counsel in 

Patent Causes, in charge of 

cases before the U. S. 

Courts. 

Assistant. 
hubert howson, 

Attorney at Law. 



In the management of Patent suits, Henry Howson 
takes part, as advising counsel and consulting expert. 

Each assistant has his clerk or clerks for attending to 
routine duties. 

Although there are two departments in these offices, 
they are in that close alliance which is to the best inter- 
est of clients ; the distribution of duties being such that 
while confusion is prevented, clients have the benefit of 
the experience and training of the heads of both depart- 
ments. 

In suits before the courts, for instance, the prelimi- 
nary steps involving searches to determine the state of the 
art relating to inventions forming the subject of litigation, 
are within the province of an expert practically familiar 
with industrial arts and publications ; hence these pre- 
liminary duties are performed mainly under the direction 
of Henry Howson, the subsequent conduct of the suit 
being in charge of Charles Howson. 



12 HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

On the other hand, all applications for patents or 
reissues involving the interests of contestants before 
the courts are reviewed by the head of the Law Depart- 
ment, as his management of the suit may depend upon 
the action of the Patent Office in such cases. 

Again, in litigated cases before the Patent Office, the 
assistance of ^he heads of both departments and their 
assistants may be required. 

The general soliciting of United States and foreign 
patents is in charge of Henry Howson, and assistants, 
as heretofore. 



FACILITIES 
FOR TRANSACTING BUSINESS, 

PRINCIPAL OFFICES, 119 SOUTH 4TH ST., PHILADELPHIA. 




INTERIOR OF HOWSONS' PATENT OFFlCfcS. 

A question naturally uppermost in the mind of a 
patentee or inventor, on perusing the business pamphlets 
of the professional men whose aid he seeks, is this : 
"What facilities have you for transacting the business 
entrusted to you ? " 

We will answer this question by a brief description 
of our offices and of our resources for performing our pro- 
fessional duties thoroughly, and as rapidly as thorough- 
ness will allow. 



H 



HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 



HENRY H0W80N. 



\j:2. 



GROUND PLAN 

HOWSONS' 
PATENT OFFICES. 

PHILADELPHIA. 



MODEL BOOM. 



^^ 



p 



PilOTOGRAPHING 

AND 

DOCUMENT 
ROOM. 




C1M&H0WS0N. 



( 



^ 



HUBERT NOWSON. 




ENTRANCE 
RCOM. 



D 
ID 

(9 



r 



-^CD 



BUSINESS FACILITIES. 



15 




We occupy the second story of the 
right wing of Forrest Building, 1 19 South 
Fourth Street, in the heart of the city, 
where banks, manufacturers' agencies, 
large commercial houses, insurance and 
railroad offices, and the custom-house, 
are situated, and where, consequently, 
many of our clients, whether residing in 
or out of town, are frequently called by 
business. The offices are also near the 
United States Court, and within easy 
reach of the new Government buildings now in course 
of erection. 

It will only be necessary to direct attention to the 
annexed ground plan of our offices to show how well 
adapted tlVey are for the general supervision of employes, 
and for the maintenance of that privacy which the nature 
of the business so imperatively demands. 

Independently of the six rooms in the second story 
occupied by our firm, two rooms in the upper story of 
the building are devoted to the storing of models and 
printed documents, and to the reproduction of drawings 
by photography, for which purpose new cameras and 
other apparatus have been recently purchased. 

This arrangement of upper rooms prevents the 
encumbering of the offices below with accumulations of 
documents, drawings, models, etc., not in present use. 
There is also ample safe-room ' for papers and models 
relating to current business, and for valuable papers 
which cannot be replaced. 

All papers are arranged in classes so as to be easily 



i6 



HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 



found, and all the papers connected with any United 
States or foreign patent procured through these offices 
since 1859 can be obtained in a few minutes. 

Ready communication of messages to all parts of the 
city is afforded by the wires of the American District 
Telegraph Company, and by the Edison Telephone with 
duplex wire arrangements, one wire communicating with 
the general office and thence with different manufacto- 
ries, and a special wire connecting the office with the 
senior partner's private residence, — an arrangement 
which enables him to communicate readily with the office 
when engaged in intricate business at the house. 




ASSISTANTS AND CLERKS. 

A PECULIAR feature of this establish- 
ment is the employment, in respon- 
sible positions, only of those who have 
been trained in the offices from boy- 
hood. It will scarcely be necessary 
to remark that by this plan the most 
j'eliable assistants are secured, and 
^ proper secrecy maintained. 
The clerks of the establishment are not permitted, 
excepting on special occasions, to receive visits at the 
office on private business of their own, nor are they 
allowed at any time to transact private patent business, 
on their own account, or on that of any friends or acquaint- 
ances. 

All drawings are made on the premises by expert 
draughtsmen who are skilled in the execution of perspec- 
tive views. 




BUSINESS FACILITIES. 1/ 

OFFICE HOURS. 

.(:cC*. v--;^ /KLERKS are required to be in attend- 
^ ance from nine o'clock A. M. to half- 
past five P. M., with an intermission 
'of half an hour. 

Mr. H. Howson, has been com- 
.pelled to restrict his office hours from 
'nine o'clock A.M. to two P.M., in order 
ithat he may have reasonable time at 
his disposal for the preparation, revision, and amendment 
of specifications, and for other duties requiring privacy; 
he will, however, be ready to meet clients for consulta- 
tions relating to important cases, at his residence in the 
evening, ^tuith the tinders tajiding, however, that such visits 
must always be by special appointment. The attendance 
of the senior partner at Washington is frequently de- 
manded, but during his absence, which is always brief, 
any matters demanding his special personal attention 
will be promptly communicated to him. 

As the senior clerk has charge of all papers con- 
nected with the soliciting department, he can answer 
promptly questions relating to pending applications. 

The office hours of Mr. Charles Howson, in charge 
of th3 Law Department, are from ten A. M. to five P. M. 
Visitors seeking general information relating to 
patents, will be cheerfully attended to, and can be fur- 
nished with a copy of any claim or other general infor- 
mation without charge, and can examine any of the 
official publications with which the cffice is plentifully 
furnished, a clerk being stationed in the entrance room 
to attend to the wants of such visitors. 



HOWSON S PATENT OFFICES. 




THE WASHINGTON BRANCH OFFICE. 

This is situated opposite to the Seventh 
J Street front of the United States Patent 
^^-r-^ Office, to the records of which access may 
I be had at any time during official business 
hours. Our Washington office is an essen- 
I lial part of the principal offices in this city, 
is devoted exclusively to the business of 
the firm, and should, therefore, not be con- 
founded with the so-called branch offices 
which are in reality offices for transacting- 
the Washington business of numbers of 
i agents in different parts of the country. 
All business intrusted to us remains under our own con- 
trol from first to last, hence that secrecy is maintained 
which cannot be relied upon where business is transferred 
to independent practitioners at Washington, who have 
their own clients to look to, besides attending to the 
clients of other agents. 

A clerk is stationed at our Washington office, and 
his duty is restricted to the making of preliminary exami- 
nations and inquiries about pending cases, and attend- 
ing .to such instructions as he receives by letter or 
telegraph from the Philadelphia offices. He is not 
permitted to file original papers other than those 
received from Philadelphia, or to act independently in 
any cases. 

We may remark here that the plan of keeping a 
clerk at Washington for the purpose of prosecuting 
applications without communicating with the principal 
offices was tried, but abandoned, four years ago, for the 



LIBRARY. \g 

present arrangement, which is, we believe, more conven- 
ient for ourselves, and more to the interest of clients. 

The Washington office is visited nearly every week 
by one of the firm, or by Mr. Hubert Howson, whose 
familiarity with the workings of the Patent Office, acquired 
during a residence in Washington, enables him to attend 
to important duties accurately and promptly. 



01 




LIBRARY. 

kF the 5,ooo volumes comprising the 
'library, such as are necessary for 
daily use are at the offices, 1 19 South 
Fourth Street, and the main reference 
library occupies two large rooms at 
the residence of H. Howson. 

Our printed catalogue renders a 
detailed description of the reference 
library in this pamphlet unnecessary, but the following 
will give a general idea of its completeness. 

37 Encyclopedias and dictionaries (271 volumes) 
relating to arts, sciences and manufactures. 

1270 volumes of magazines and other serials relat- 
ing to the progress of the useful arts since 1730. 

783 books relating to United States Patents, includ- 
ing the monthly volumes of patents, compilations, official 
gazettes, etc. 

A complete set of abridgments of British Patents, 
British Commissioner of Patents Journal up to date. 
Also Canadian and other Colonial patent publications. 

Complete set of French Patents as far as published, up 
to I Sy6, with indexes. Also yearly official index up to date. 



20 HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 







LIBRARY. 21 

The remaining volumes cf the hbrary are technical 
publications relating to the industrial and mechanic arts. 

Any of the books will, at the request of clients, be 
brought to the office for perusal, but in no case will clients 
or others be permitted to take them away. The neces- 
sity of adopting this stringent rule will be apparent. The 
books, being works of reference, may be required at any 
time ; and, moreover, it is next to impossible to replace, 
in case of loss, volumes of valuable serials. 



It may appear at first sight that the organization of 
our offices, the many appliances for transacting business, 
and a costly library, would involve the making of extrav- 
agant charges. The contrary is the case, however ; for just 
as system and labor-saving machinery tend to the produc- 
tion of superior articles at moderate rates, so docs the 
systematic application of our ample resources tend to 
thoroughness and exactitude in the performance of our 
duties, for reasonable fees. 

Our main object throughout has been to so organize 
the office, that we could retain immediate charge of all 
patent business placed in our hands, and avoid all de- 
pendence upon outside help. 

It is quite common in conducting patent business to 
subdivide the work and distribute it to different parties 
having no joint responsibilities : the drawings being made 
by one man, who may work for several solicitors, the 
specifications being prepared by another man, who 
intrusts its prosecution in the patent office to a so-called 
associate at Washington, while a fourth man takes. charge 
of such legal duties as the case may call for. When so 



22 HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

many men with diverse interests, and acting indepen- 
dently of each other, take part in the business, it is 
impossible to preserve secrecy and uniformity of action. 
These can only be maintained where the entire business 
is performed in one establishment, and under those who 
are immediately responsible to the client. 




SOLICITING DEPARTMENT 

OF 

H0W80NS' PATENT OFFICES, 

119 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 
PHILADELPHIA. 

Branch Office, 605 Seventh St., Washinqton, D. C. 



H. HOWSON, Sr., 



ENGINEER AND SOLICITOR OF PATENTS. 

l^S OF COV 



ASSISTANT, Xj^"^ C OPY R lG]-f;^^i^N 

H. SMITH, ( MA/ 11 1883. J 

Chief CLERK AND Notary. \ '^/^ l^o. 11.1^1 4} A 

Drawing Department in charge of 

H. HOWSON, Jr., 

Draughtsman and Machinist! 



copyright 1880. HOWSON & SONS> 




24 



SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

^^^ — nPHIS portion of our pamphlet will be 
--^' X devoted to a full explanation of the 
K^^ plan we pursue in prosecuting this 
*i II n branch of our profession, and the rea- 
^llfpiil sons therefor. Before we proceed to 
^ this, however, it may be best to intro- 
!S^^^- duce a few remarks about patents and 
- patent property generally. 
The first thing for an inventor to understand is his 
true position, as a patentee, in respect to the public ; he 
must not imagine that he is set apart by the Government 
for special indulgences or privileges because he possesses 
inventive faculties ; the Government has established laws 
for the protection of property in invention precisely as it 
has for the security of other property, and for precisely the 
same purpose ; that is, for the welfare of the community 
at large, and not for the especial benefit of individuals. 

The patent laws are founded on the fact that the 
granting of exclusive rights to inventors for a limited 
time ** promotes the progress of the useful arts," and 
consequently benefits the public. 

But for the Government to grant exclusive rights to 
applicants without first inquiring whether they are really 
the inventors they claim to be, would be to favor indi- 
viduals at the expense of the community ; hence the 
system of Government examination which is the especial 
and eminently iust feature of the patent laws oT this 
country. 



INTRODUCTORY. 25 

An inventor goes to the proper officer of the Gov- 
ernment, and says, " I have an invention here for which, 
on the ground of its novehy and utihty, I demand a title- 
deed, giving me the sole right, for a certain time, of 
making, using and selling the invention." The Govern- 
ment officer, in reply to the applicant, says, " We cannot 
accept your simple assertion. You may think you have 
made an invention, but it is probable enough that you 
are mistaken. The public or prior patentees may have 
something to say about the subject; and as the servant 
of the public, I must see whether your invention is rot in 
whole, or in part, already public property, or the subject 
of an existing prior patent, or whether you have not 
claimed more than you are entitled to. You cannot 
have a title to that which is already public property, or 
to that vv'hich some one else has already acquired a 
good title to ; we will therefore examine the records, and 
unless we find proof that you are not entitled to a patent 
for what you demand, you shall have it." 

If the result of the examination is favorable to the 
applicant, the patent must be granted. 

But, of course, the Government cannot guarantee the 
validity of the patent. The possession of a title-deed 
does not preclude the possibility of questions of right. 
The inventor's title-deed is his patent, and it is presump- 
tive evidence of his right to all he claims in that patent, 
and nothing more. 

The system of examination prior to granting patents 
greatly increases the weight of this presumption in the 
patentee's favor, but does not by any means make it 
conclusive ; and it is simply impossible that any system 



26 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

of examination should have that effect. It is practicable 
to determine — with some approach to accuracy — whether 
an invention has or has not been previously patented or 
described in a printed publication in this or some foreign 
country. A sufficiently large corps of competent exami- 
ners, and well-classified records make this possible ; yet, 
even here, oversights or errors of judgment may and do 
occur. 

But a patent is invalid, not only if the thing patented 
has, before the patentee's invention, been patented or 
published here or elsewhere, but also if it has been, prior 
to his invention, used publicly, that is openly, though to 
ever so limited an extent, by other persons in this 
country, or if, after his invention, but for more than two 
years before his application for a patent, it has been 
publicly used or sold with his knowledge and consent. 

Now these are questions which it is not practica- 
ble, as a rule, to pass upon before the grant of a patent ; 
the requisite proofs are not in the circumstances under 
which applications for Letters Patent are made, accessi- 
ble, and consequently the examination is not directed 
to these points. 

It is a fallacy, therefore, to suppose that the grant 
of Letters Patent constitutes a warranty of title. 

The grant is without warranty, and at the risk of the 
grantee. All that the Government undertakes to do 
before the grant is to protect the public, and strengthen 
the patentee's evidence of title, as far as is practicable, 
by an examination of domestic and foreign patents and 
publications, refusing the patent altogether if this search 
clearly shows the invention to be oldj or if the invention 



INTRODUCTORY. 2/ 

appears to be only partly anticipated, then restricting the 
grant to that part which seems to have been neither 
patented nor pubhshed before. This is a great service 
to the patentee, and is performed infinitely better, and 
more cheaply, than he could make the like search him- 
self, or have it made for him by private parties ; but, as 
we have stated, it cannot and does not ensure his title. 

The abolition of the examining system has been 
advocated, but we think that any departure from a 
pr ictice which gives to a patent a status not attainable 
without official examination would be a calamity. 



The main duties which devolve upon a solicitor of 
patents when an invention is submitted to him, are. 

First, To determine by preliminary examination 
what prospect there is of obtaining a patent, and what 
kind of patent may probably be granted. 

Second, If the prospects of obtaining a patent are 
good, and the inventor elects to proceed with the appli- 
cation, to prepare a specification and with very rare 
exceptions, a drawing. 

Thirdy The prosecution of the application after it 
has been filed ; this duty including investigations in case 
of rejection, and the preparing of arguments, amend- 
ments, etc., to meet or combat the views of the examiners. 

Every inventor should bear in mind that his first 
success in obtaining a sound patent, and his second 
success in deriving reasonable remuneration for his 
invention when patented, depend mainly on the manner 
in which these duties are performed. 




28 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS- 

mOM the establishment of this office, 

in 1853, it has been our practice to 

^^^m^ invite inventors to consult us as soon 

."=;^g as they have conceived what they 

-\^E suppose to be an invention. 

We do not require a model to illus- 
I trate the invention ; a simple sketch, 
\ or even an explanation given verbally 
or in writing-, will, in many cases, suffice to enable us to 
understand it. 

Large sums of money are wasted in the premature 
malting of expensive models, which, on examination, 
prove useless, because the inventions they represent are 
not new. 

In many cases we are enabled to give from memory, 
without charge, a reference which will show the inven- 
tion to have been anticipated. Our senior partner has 
been engaged in mechanical and scientific pursuits for 
many years, and has necessarily acquired a fund of 
information relating to the industrial arts, and this 
information he is ready to draw upon without charge for 
the benefit of the inventor consulting him. Scarcely a 
day passes without presenting the opportunity of advis- 
ing an inventor not to incur expense in developing his 
invention. 

Whenever we have a doubt as to the patentability 
of an invention, we recommend a preliminary examina- 
tion, to determine not only whether there is a probability 
of securing a patent, but whether a patent with some sub- 
stance in it can be procured. For this duty, which is 



PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS. 29 

mainly performed at our branch office, we charge a fee 
oi five dollars, which sum, if the application for a patent 
is made, will be deducted from the agency fee therefor. 

In three or four days after receiving the particulars of 
an invention we can mail to the^inventor a report point- 
ing out and illustrating such references as appear to have 
a bearing on his case, or the inventor can call at the 
office and examine for himself, in the monthly volumes 
of Patents, or other books, the references pointed out. 

Inventors should distinctly understand what is 
meant by this preliminary examination. It does not 
mean a thorough investigation of the prior state of tl:c 
art to which the invention relates (see Searches and 
Reports) ; this would in many cases involve the labor of 
days, perhaps of weeks, in the perusal of domestic and 
foreign records, and for this a fee of five dollars would 
be totally inadequate. The search is made with the view 
of ascertaining approximately whether the alleged inven- 
tion has been the subject of a patent in the United 
States. 

While a preliminary examination, therefore, is com- 
paratively superficial, and does not guarantee a patent, 
it is, with rare exceptions, the means of procuring reliable 
information relating to prior United States patents, and 
often saves much expense in the preparation of models 
and the making of applications, and much loss of time 
and harassment of mind. 

Caution in applying for patents has always been 
characteristic of this establishment, the present propor- 
tions of which may be attributed in a great measure to 
the strict observance of this rule. 



30 



SOLICITING DEPARTMENT, 




MODELS. 

SINCE the first edition of this book was 
published, the rule relating to models 
has been so far modified that they 
are now required in comparatively 
few cases. For many years the senior 
member of this firm advocated the 
abolition of the model system, and 
finally presented to Congress a peti- 
tion, in his argument relating to which, the following 
grounds were taken in favor of the abandonment of 
models in a majority of cases : 

That the making of these models is a serious tax on 
inventors, involves the premature exposure of inventions, 
and needless delay in making applications for patents, 
and detracts from the revenue of the Patent Office, 
because the demand for models frequently deters inven- 
tors from making applications. 

That models are not, as a rule, necessary for attor- 
neys in preparing applications for patents, or for Exam- 
iners of the Patent Office in the performance of their 
duties. 

That, with rare exceptions, complete, well-executed 
drawings afford more ready means of determining the 
character of an invention, and should be, in any case 
admitting of them, sufficient for the interpretation of the 
specifications forming part of the patent. 

That owing to the furnishing of models, there is a 
tendency in the Patent Office to admit drawings which 
are wanting in fullness and perspicuity, and which would 



MODELS. 31 

not be admitted in the absence of models, — an evil result- 
ing in the delivery of patents which cannot be easily 
understood without the aid of models. 

The bill presented with this petition failed, with 
other patent bills, but the present law makes the require- 
ment of a model discretionary with the Commissioner, 
who established the following rule, September 15, 1880: 

" A model will not be required or admitted as a part 
of the application until, on examination of the case in its 
regular order, the primary examiner shall find it to be 
necessary or useful, and shall file a written certificate to 
that effect, which will constitute an official action in the 
case. From a decision of the primary examJner over- 
ruling a motion to dispense with a model, an appeal may 
be taken to the Commissioner in person." 

The result of a year's enforcement of this rule has 
been the making of official examinations quite as well 
without models as with them, a large increase in the num- 
ber of applications, and a saving to applicants of the 
time and expense formerly consumed in the making of 
useless models. 

This salutary measure was vigorously opposed by a 
number of Washington attorneys, who even now that 
the system has been modified, issue circulars urging 
inventors to go to the unnecessary expense of making 
models. 

We never require models in preparing applications 
for patents. If the invention is for a small device or 
machine already made, a sewing-machine for instance, 
it can be placed in our hands as a guide in preparing the 
drawings ; but in at least 50 per cent, of the applications 



32 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

filed through these offices since the enforcement of the 
rule, the drawings have been made either from sketches 
made by our draughtsmen in different manufactories, or 
from rough sketches made by the inventors themselves, 
or from working drawings. 

As the senior member of this firm is a practical 
mechanical and civil engineer, he can readily instruct 
his draughtsmen how to put into proper shape inven- 
tions represented by crude sketches and brief explana- 
tions, a moderate additional fee being charged for the 
time consumed in such services. 

Models are occasionally demanded, but we do our 
best to render this requirement unnecessary by paying 
special attention to the making of very complete draw- 
ings with perspective views. Occasionally extra sheets 
of drawings are required for this purpose, in which case 
we charge a reasonable additional fee, which is always 
cheerfully paid, as they are much less costly than a 
model. 

SPECIFICATIONS AND CLAIMS. 

^HEN an inventor asks for a patent, he 
must present with his petition and oath 
a written description of his invention, 
in " full, clear, and exact terms ; " and 
he must *' particularly point out and 
distinctly claim the part, improvement 
or combination which he claims as his 
invention or discovery.'* 
This is the specification, which is to form a part of 
the printed patent, when granted ; it is to be the patentee's 




SPECIFICATIONS AND CLAIMS. 33 

published definition of the scope of his protection, and 
is to determine whether the patent is good or bad. 

The inventor must decide for himself, or through his 
solicitors, what kind of protection he asks for ; the Gov- 
ernment authorities cannot help him in deciding how 
much he shall claim. They will take care that no patent 
shall be granted with a specification claiming more than 
the applicant appears to be entitled to. If he claims less, 
if his specification is badly framed, if it omits proper 
mention of important features, if it fails to properly dis- 
tinguish what is new from what is old, if the claim is too 
narrow, the patent will be defective, and will fail to give 
the desired protection ; and for this no one is to blame 
but the patentee himself, or his solicitor. 

It might be supposed that inventors would intrust 
the preparation of documents of such vital importance 
as specifications, to the most proficient experts, but the 
truth is that a very large proportion of the specifications 
filed in the Patent Office are butchered documents ; and 
this is by no means peculiar to this country, for patents 
granted in England and France frequently exhibit a total 
lack of proper qualification on the part of those who pre- 
pared the papers. 

Inventors have been cautioned by the authorities of 
the Patent Office, on this subject. As far back as 1852, 
Commissioner Burke told them that, " No great aid is to 
be expected in drawing up the substance of the specifi- 
cation, from any forms. The character of the devices 
described varies so widely, and the details to be embod- 
ied demand such a different consideration and expres- 
sion in different cases, that the language adopted on one 



34 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

occasion can rarely be employed on another without 
great modification. 

** There is hardly any class of documents in preparing 
which so little aid is to be derived from precedents ; none 
where more depends upon skill, experience, and inge- 
nuity, or where these are more indispensable." 

Judge Mason warned inventors on the same subject. 
Commissioner Fisher repeated the same warning in his 
usual forcible style ; and as recently as March of last 
year, Commissioner Spear published the following : 

" A large percentage of the cases filed in the office 
are prepared by men who have none of the requisites 
named, and little knowledge beyond mere forms. These 
are often subordinates dismissed from the office, or from 
private firms, for incompetency or fault. 

** Inventors are therefore urgently advised to avoid 
illiterate attorneys who advertise to work at the cheapest 
rates, but whose services are dear at any price, and to 
seek the aid of those whose experience and technical 
and legal knowledge are based on a liberal education, 
and who are in good standing at the Patent Office and 
before the country." 

As we stated in our preface, it is quite common for 
solicitors to scribble out or dictate in a few minutes some- 
thing called a specification, whereas hours of careful 
study and cautious writing should be devoted to the 
subject. 

As regards our own practice, we never have done 
and never intend to do, this sort of reckless work ; we 
cannot afford to do it. We expect to devote to every 
case the careful consideration and forethoug-ht for which 



SPECIFICATIONS AND CLAIMS. 35 

we are paid ; and we may state that it is no uncommon 
thing at our offices to write a specification three or four 
times over, and, in cases of intricate character, we fre- 
quently print the specifications. 

We contend that the duty of a sohcitor of patents, in 
preparing a specification and accompanying drawing, 
does not end with a description of the invention as sub- 
mitted to him by the inventor, in the shape of a model or 
drawing. It is his further duty to look out for weak 
points, to introduce such views and descriptions of modi- 
fications as will pave the way for substantial claims ; in 
fact, to present the case in the best possible light to the 
Patent Office. 

Our manner of dealing with clients in preparing 
applications, may be best understood by the following 
quotation from our Mr. H. Howson's book, '* Patents and 
the Useful Arts," in which he undertook to caution in- 
ventors as to the treatment they ought to receive from 
their attorneys. 

" Inventors may save themselves from the many pit- 
falls which beset them as patentees, and may acquire 
much salutary information, by observing the following 
instructions : 

" Never sign blank petitions for applications for pat- 
ents ; insist upon examining the specification and drawings 
before the application is signed and filed, noting espe- 
cially the character of the claims. You may be told that 
you cannot understand them, but you have at least a 
right to try and understand them, and if you cannot, 
your attorney ought to explain them. 

" Keep a copy of the specification, or at least of the 



36 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

claims ; and bear in mind that the protection you acquire 
by a patent will depend upon the claims which are 
allowed. 

" After your application is filed, insist upon knowing 
every step taken in the prosecution of the case." 




i 



DRAWINGS. 

PPLICATIONS for patents must be 
accompanied with drawings, if the 
nature of the invention admits of illus- 
tration. 

As the drawing becomes a part of 
the patent when granted, it is of the 
^^ utmost importance that it should be 
properly executed, that every feature 
should be shown, and modifications introduced when 
necessary. 

A patent must be self-interpreting, it must be intelli- 
gible to those skilled in the art to which it relates, other- 
wise the patent is bad. It is scarcely necessary to remark 
that insufficient and defective drawings have been at- 
tached to many patents ; and this has been due to the 
fact that the Examiner had before him a model by which 
he could so interpret the drawing that the latter appeared 
to be sufficient, and was admitted; the public, however, 
in interpreting the patent, must rely on the drawing ; they 
have no model at hand to aid them. 

It was for this reason mainly that we headed the 
attack against the model system, and advocated the 
abolition of models. Although the measure was opposed 
by a number of Washington attorneys, the Commis- 



DRAWINGS. 37 

sioner, in September, 1880, established the rule referred 
to under the head of Models. 

We are prepared to make the necessary Patent Office 
drawings, without the aid of a model, from working draw- 
ings or rough sketches; or we will send a competent 
draughtsman to any point to make sketches and obtain 
particulars of any invention for which a patent is desired. 

The better the drawings, the less will be the proba- 
bility of a demand for models, hence we always send 
with applications for patents the complete illustrations 
for which this establishment is noted. 

Occasionally very elaborate and extra sheets of 
drawings are required, for which we make additional 
moderate charges, always cheerfully paid by experienced 
inventors, who know that the extra sheets are made with 
the view of avoiding the demand for models. 

We never resort to the common but unsafe plan of 
employing outside draughtsmen, but, with the view of 
maintaining proper secrecy, all drawings are made on 
the premises by draughtsmen who have been especially 
trained at these offices, and who are experts in the 
making of perspective views. 

We have bound with this pamphlet a number 
of copies of drawings made at these offices, and 
attached to patents obtained through us ; the copies 
being necessarily on a reduced scale, but sufficiently 
clear to show that we attach much importance to this 
branch of the business. 

We make no extra charges for drawings in ordinary 
cases, the cost of which is included in the fees for making 
applications. 



38 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 



PROSECUTION OF APPLICATIONS. 

C^#^v T^HIS duty is perhaps the most deHcate 



t; 




which a solicitor of patents has to per- 
^'C'^P^' form, and one which involves grave 
;^(5)^^^^ responsibilities. 

As we remarked above, the Gov- 
, ernment authorities must determine 
'. whether an applicant for a patent is 
entitled to one based on the specifi- 
cation and claim which he presents. For making the 
examinations on the result of which the grant or refusal 
of a patent depends, there are twenty-two principal 
examiners, each having a first, second and third assis- 
tant, with a clerk or clerks, and having charge of one 
of the following classes : 

(i.) Tillage ; (2.) Farm stock and produce ; (3.) Metal- 
lurgy, distillation, and refrigeration ; (4.) Civil engineer- 
ing; (5.) Fine arts, toys and apparel; (6.) Chemistry; 
(7.) Harvesting and milling; (8.) Furniture, bread-mak- 
ing, and laundry ; (9.) Hydraulics and pneumatics ; (10.) 
Carriages, wagons, and railway cars; (11.) Leather- 
working machines and articles ; (12.) Mechanical engi- 
neering ; (13.) Metal working ; (14.) Grinding, polishing, 
and packing ; (15.) Plastics ; (16.) Electricity, measuring, 
and optics ; (17.) Printing and paper manufacture ; (18.) 
Steam engineering; (19.) Stoves and lamps; (20.) Sur- 
gery and hardware ; (21.) Textiles; (22.) Guns, ships, 
and wood-working. 

Applications filed in the Office are distributed to the 
different rooms, and are taken up for examination in the 
order of their date ; the time which elapses between the 



PROSECUTION OF APPLICATIONS. 39 

filing and first action varying in different rooms, accord- 
ing to the amount of work in hand, from one to three 
weeks ; or, in some rooms, it may be at times a month or 
six weeks before a case is reached. 

It is the duty of the Examiner in the first place to 
see that the application is in proper form, that the drawing 
and model, if there be any, are sufficient, and that the 
specification is drawn clearly and exactly, and in accor- 
dance with the established rules of the Office. 

If there are no defects in the application, or defects 
have been remedied, the Examiner proceeds with his 
searches ; he will reject the application if the invention 
is found to be the subject of a prior patent in this or any 
other country, or if it is described in any printed publica- 
tion, United States or foreign, or even if he has a knowl- 
edge, derived from any source, of the prior existence of the 
invention, or he may determine by examination that part 
of the invention is old, and may reject one or more of 
the claims ; but inventors must bear in mind that it is no 
part of his duty to instruct the applicant when his claims 
are not as broad as they might be. 

In this connection, it may be well to introduce the 
following quotation from the special order of the Com- 
missioner of Patents, August 27, 1878. 

*' The Examiners of the Patent Office cannot under- 
take to do the work of attorneys by rewriting and cor- 
recting specifications. Their first duty is to see that the 
papers are in proper form, to notify the attorney when and 
where corrections are needed, — and, of course, the more 
ignorant the attorney, the more corrections are required, 
and the greater are the annoyance and trouble to which 



40 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

the Examiner is subjected. It is an Examiner's duty to 
reject an application if the thing claimed is old, or if the 
applicant has claimed too much ; but it is no part of his 
duty to notify the attorney when he has claimed too little 
for his client." 

When an application is rejected, the reasons 'are 
given in full in an official letter, citing the references 
on which the rejection is based. 

It is at this juncture that the services of an experi- 
enced and painstaking attorney are of the most use to 
the applicant. 

The reckless or incompetent man may get out of the 
difficulty as speedily as possible, especially if he has a 
contingent fee, by withdrawing claims, introducing others 
which can be of no value, inserting dangerous admissions 
in the specification, never stopping to investigate the 
references, or to inquire whether the Examiner is right 
or wrong in his views ; in short, such an attorney is will- 
ing to accept anything in the shape of a patent. 

With the remark that this is a mode of doing busi- 
ness which we cannot afford to adopt, we will proceed to 
explain what services our clients, whose cases may be 
rejected, are entitled to for the fees paid on filing their 
applications. 

It should be understood that complete copies of 
every application made through these offices are retained, 
a separate pamphlet or cover being devoted to the papers 
of each case. 

The first papers in the pamphlet are a complete press 
copy of the original specification and a photograph of the 
drawings When an application is rejected, we add the 



PROSECUTION OF APPLICATIONS. 4I 

official letter to the applicant's pamphlet and send him a 
copy, after which we procure copies from the Patent 
Office or from our library or other sources, of all ref- 
erences cited in the official letter ; and these copies are 
also pasted in the pamphlet, which is then in complete 
condition for that careful perusal which a proper prose- 
cution of the rejected application demands. 

Further proceedings may in some cases be delayed 
until an opportunity has been afforded of consulting or 
corresponding with the applicant as to the bearing of the 
references. 

If after perusal of the references we conclude that 
the Exa,miner is mistaken or in part mistaken in his views, 
we prepare a careful argument and such amendments as 
seem necessary. In addition to this, in cases which 
appear to require it, we obtain personal interviews with 
the Examiner. 

In many cases, we come to conclusions totally at 
variance with those of the Examiner, whose opinions, 
cannot be changed ; in such cases we recommend an 
appeal to the Examiners-in-chief. 

Copies of all arguments and amendments, corre- 
spondence with the office, etc., are retained, and pasted 
in the pamphlet relating to them ; so that, during all 
stages of the proceedings before the Patent Office, the 
pamphlet will form a complete record of the case. 

Duplicate copies of all papers are kept in the branch 
office at Washington for ready reference during the 
repeated visits made to that city by ourselves or assist- 
ants. 

Each client is notified, from time to time, of the prog- 



42 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

ress of his case, by sending him copies of official 
letters. 

FEES. — No additional fees are demanded for the 
services above described in prosecuting rejected applica- 
' tions before the primary Examiner. 




EXAMINERS. 

'T may be as well to say a few words 
here about these officers. 

An impression prevails to a con- 
siderable extent that the Patent Office 
I is an institution of a rather arbitrary 
character, that the Examiners are often 
actuated by a captious opposition to 
■ the claims of inventors ; while rumors 
of favoritism exercised in the Patent Office are not un- 
known. 

Certain practitioners are in part responsible for this. 
We know from the published opinions of different Com- 
missioners that there is a large number of attorneys 
practicing before the Patent Office who are not possessed 
of the proper qualifications for duties they have assumed ; 
failing to secure patents, or patents of a substantial char- 
acter, and too ignorant to perceive that this is due to 
their own short-comings, they abuse the Examiners to 
their clients. 

A Commissioner said of these men in his report for 
1869 : " They have the ear of their client, and to some 
extent of the public, and much of the misrepresentation 
of the spirit and character of the work of the office is 
directly traceable to this source." 



EXAMINERS. 43 

It would be well for inventors to take note of the 
following : 

First. — Nearly all the Examiners and assistants owe 
their positions to competitive examinations. 

Second. — An Examiner stands between the appli- 
cant for a patent and the public ; and it is his sworn duty 
to see to it, as far as he can, that an applicant does not 
obtain a patent for that which is the property of the 
public or of a prior inventor. 

It may be fairly assumed, from the mode of this 
appointment, that these Examiners are, with few excep- 
tions, capable of performing their duties, and that the 
desire of the juniors for promotion and the wish of the 
seniors to stand well with the heads of the bureau will in- 
duce them to perform their duties faithfully and fearlessly. 

When an attorney, in consulting with or writing to an 
applicant whose case may have been rejected, accuses the 
Examiner in charge of incompetency, obstinacy, or cer- 
rupt motives, it will be well for the applicant to inquire 
how much of the trouble is due to the attorney himself. 

Naturally enough there is much difference of opin- 
ion among Examiners as to questions of patentability, 
and there may be solitary instances in which the action 
of an Examiner may savor of injustice, or incompetency, 
or a desire to manufacture patent law of his own, or to 
tantalize an attorney ; but these cases are rare. It is 
the experience of the writer, after a practice of a quarter 
of a century, that Examiners, as a rule, perform their 
duties as conscientiously as any other judicial officers, 
and that they are ready to yield to arguments likely 
to convince any fair and reasonable man. 



44 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

These remarks may be out of place in a pamphlet 
like this, but we are anxious that our clients and inven- 
tors generally should not harbor a suspicion that they are 
liable to unfair treatment at the hands of officers of the 
Patent Office. 

The opinions of Examiners may be adverse to the 
interests of the applicant, but the latter must remember 
that there are ample opportunities to appeal from an 
Examiner's decision. 



N' 




TIME REQUIRED TO OBTAIN PATENTS. 

[ O specified time can be named. The 
case may be acted on in a few days 
after it is filed, or it may not be 
^reached for several weeks. It may 
be rejected in such terms that much 
^time must be devoted to meeting the 
E objections with proper arguments, 
I' etc.; it may be rejected a second 
time, and an appeal may be necessary, so that it is next 
to impossible to state in advance how soon a patent may 
be allowed ; but an applicant maybe certain of this, that 
it is a comparatively easy and expeditious matter to pro- 
cure a bad patent with miserable claims, and that it is 
often a matter of time and labor to obtain a good patent 
with broad claims. 

The broader the claims of an application, the more 
caution will the examiner exercise in the performance of 
his duties ; and the more, urgently an application is pros- 
ecuted in the best interest of a client, the more time must 
be devoted to it by the attorney ; hence inventors may 



TIME REQUIRED TO OBTAIN PATENTS. 4$ 

be assured that when there is apparent delay in the prose- 
cution of cases at these offices, they must not attribute 
it to neglect, but to that cautious and deliberate action 
which all rejected cases demand. 




APPEALS. 
'' ^ FTER a second rejection, by the 
principal Examiner, of an applica- 
tion or of one or more claims of an 
application, on the same references, 
- an appeal can be taken to the Exam- 
|iners-in-chief on payment of a Gov- 
lernment fee of $io. 

Three Examiners-in-chief con- 
stitute a Board of Appeal, the modification or abandon- 
ment of which has been from time to time suggested. 

To change or abolish existing organizations is a com- 
mon and easy suggestion, but one not deserving much 
attention unless the parties making it are able to suggest 
at the same time some plan which will supply the place 
of that to be abolished to better advantage. 

So far we have not heard of any very promising sug- 
gestion in that direction. 

Of course these appeals should be taken with caution 
and with a proper spirit. If they are made without due 
deliberation, or are actuated by a perverse opposition to 
the Examiner, or a spirit of captiousness, the applicant 
is very likely to be the sufferer. 

Our practice is, after we have made up our minds 
positively that an applicant is entitled to a claim or 
claims which have been rejected, to be unyielding and 



46 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

persistent, and after failing to convince the Examiner that 
we are right, to recommend an appeal to the Examiners- 
in-chief. These appeals are prosecuted by oral argu- 
ments and by briefs, which we prefer to print for the con- 
venience of the members of the Board. 

FEES. — An estimate will always be given of the 
fees required in appeal cases, the estimate including the 
Government fee of $10, oral argument before the Board, 
and cost of printed brief. 



APPEALS TO THE COMMISSIONER, 

From an adverse decision of the Examiners-in-chief, 
an applicant can appeal to the Commissioner in person 
on payment of a Government fee of ^20. 

An appeal to the Commissioner is rarely required, 
and it is a very unusual case indeed which suggests 
taking advantage of the law providing an appeal from 
the Commissioner to the Supreme Court of the District 
of Columbia. 



BILLS IN EQUITY TO OBTAIN PATENTS. 

It is hardly necessary — except to exemplify the 
extreme care which our patent laws take to provide 
against possible mistake in the refusal of patents — to 
mention this provision, so rare must the occasions be in 
which it is necessary or advisable to take advantage ot 
it. Section 4915 of the Revised Statutes enacts that 
when a patent on application is refused, either by the 
Commissioner or by the Supreme Court of the District of 
Columbia, on appeal from him, the applicant may have 
remedy by Bill in Equity in a Circuit Court of the United 



BILLS IN EQUITY TO OBTAIN PATENTS. 47 

States. If the court adjudge the petitioner entitled to 
a patent, the adjudication, a copy of it being filed in . 
the Patent Office, shall authorize the Commissioner to 
issue the patent. The expenses of the proceeding, 
whether the result be in favor of or adverse to the appli- 
cant, are to be paid by him. 

FEES for these appeals will vary according to the 
character of the cases, but estimates can always be given 
in advance. 

INTERLOCUTORY APPEALS. 

When an Examiner, in passing in the first place upon 
the insufficiency of the application in the matter of form, 
has determined that a specification or claim is improperly 
drawn, or that the drawings or model, if there be any, are 
imperfect, or comes to other conclusions of analogous 
character, before examining an application on its merits, 
if he persists in his opinions, an appeal may be taken 
directly to the Commissioner without payment of a Gov- 
ernment fee. 

These interlocutory appeals would appear to be 
unnecessarily frequent, and are caused in many cases 
by a disposition on the part of attorneys to take as a per- 
sonal affront any change which the Examiner may desire 
in the papers submitted to him. Of course, delay and 
expense are incurred in making these appeals, and these 
might be obviated in many cases by the exercise of a 
little discretion. 

When an Examiner makes such demands as those 
referred to, the first thing for an attorney to determine is 
whether a compliance with the demand will jeopardize 
the interests of the applicant ; if it will not, the feelings 



48 



SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 



of the attorney should be discarded and the interests of 
the dient consulted, by making the desired alterations ; 
and only if the alterations will work any injury to the 
client, should the appeal be made. This is the practice 
we follow, for clients gain nothing by mere fractious 
opposition to harmless requirements. 




REISSUES. 



A recent decision of the United States Supreme 
Court will necessarily demand the adoption by the 
Patent Office of new rulings relating to the treat- 
ment of applications for Reissues of Patents. ATVhat- 
ever may be the tenor of the new rules, they will 
certainly be of a restrictive character, in order 
to comply with the terms of the Supreme Court's 
decision, and will suggest to inventors the presenta- 
tion of original applications in^ the best possible 
shape, and the exercise of the greatest caution in 
their prosecution, with the view of obviating diffi- 
culties for which Reissuing of Patents no longer 
affords a.reliable remedy. 

For the above reasons a change in the following 
chapter relating to Reissues will be required, and 
this will be made as soon as new rulings are adopted 
in the Patent Office. 

HOWSON & SONS. 

Philadelphia, January 16, 1882. 



REISSUES. 



49 




REISSUES. 

A merciful clause in our patent laws is 
that relating to reissues, which allows 
the patentee to repair his patent, not 
by the introduction of new matter, 
j'but by such alterations of the specifi- 
' cation and claims as the defects in 
the original deed, and the state of 
the art when the patent was granted, 
may warrant. 

A reissue is lawful, whenever a patent is inoperative 
because of a defective or insufficient specification, or 
because the patentee has claimed as his own invention 
more than he had a right to claim as new, if the error 
has been inadvertent and without fraudulent or deceptive 
intention. The terms " defective or insufficient specifi- 
cation " include the case of claims covering less than the 
patentee was entitled to. The reissue must be for the 
same invention as the original patent in this sense, that 
no new matter must be introduced into it ; and by new 
matter is meant matter which is not described, shown, or 
substantially indicated in the specification, or the draw- 
ing, or the model of the original patent. The only 
instances in which the law of reissue allows any evidence 
outside of the Patent Office Records, as to what the inven- 
tion originally patented was, is in some cases where 
there is neither model nor drawing. 

Inventors will therefore understand that the legiti- 
mate object of reissuing a patent, is not to make it 
include matter which they may have thought of after the 
issue of the original patent, nor even to make it include 



50 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

matter which they may have thought of before applying 
for the original patent, unless that matter was embodied 
in their specification, or drawing, or model filed in the 
Patent Office. 

Like other beneficent measures, this privilege of 
reissues has been grossly abused, by distorting the mean- 
ing of patents, and by such cunning changes in the 
re-wording of the new specification and claims that the 
new patent is or appears to be for something which the 
inventor never contemplated. 

Deceptive reissues rarely stand the test of the 
courts ; the history of patent litigation is the history of 
the wholesale slaughter of patents which have been 
reissued to cover more than the patentee was entitled to. 

There are, however, hosts of patents in which less is 
claimed than the inventor was entitled to, or which are 
defective because the actual invention has been in some 
particulars incorrectly or obscurely shown and described ; 
and there are, less frequently, patents defective because 
they have been inadvertently framed to cover more than 
the patentee was entitled to. 

The law relating to reissues was intended for the 
honest repairing of such patents : but, unfortunately, 
defective patents are not uncommonly so bad that the 
remedy by reissue is difficult and sometimes impossible. 

There are many patents, again, with claims quite as 
broad as the character of the invention will permit, and 
which are more likely to be injured than improved by 
reissue ; but the owners of such patents are sometimes 
persuaded to reissue them upon new specifications which 
appear to be founded on the idea that a change in names 



REISSUES. 51 

will work a change in things, and the consequence is 
that the reissued patent is really of less use to the 
patentee than the original. 

Inventors would do well to note the following truths 
concerning reissues : 

First. — Before an application is made for a reissue of 
a patent, there must be some good reason for it, — an 
imperfect description, or claims either too narrow or too 
broad ; a reissue covering more than the original patent 
included, is valid only if the matter covered be described 
or shown or substantially indicated in the original speci- 
fication, or drawing, or model ; no other reissue is of any 
value to the honest patentee ; if by accident, or careless- 
ness, or incompetency, neither the specification, drawing, 
normodelsrefer to what in fact was apart of the patentee's 
invention, then the patent is not remediable by reissue. 

Second. — To properly prepare and prosecute an 
application for a reissue requires experience, skill, good 
common sense and fair dealing with the Patent Office ; 
if unscrupulous cunning be substituted for these qualifi- 
cations, the applicant is likely to be ultimately the loser. 

The circulars of the most obscure novices always 
contain clauses relating to their facilities for procuring 
reissued patents, but it is a duty upon the performance of 
which the best abilities of an experienced man should be 
brought to bear. 

An inventor's prosperity or adversity, the pecuniary 
success or failure of a manufacture, may depend entirely 
on a reissue. 

An obvious lesson also to be learned from the restric- 
tion which the law properly places upon the remedy of 



52 SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

reissue, is that an inventor should exercise all possible 
care in applying for his original patent, so as to reduce to 
a minimum the likelihood of requiring a reissue. 

No policy could be more short-sighted than that which 
has sometimes obtained, under professional advice too, 
of sacrificing thoroughness to haste in obtaining an origi- 
nal patent, with the idea of afterwards reissuing to remedy 
the defects which a little deliberation would have pre- 
vented. 

When a patent is placed in our hands to be reissued, 
our first step is to carefully examine the patent itself, then 
to peruse the file in the Patent Office which relates to it, 
and finally to examine such records as may have a bear- 
ing on the case, in order to determine as far as possible 
whether it is prudent to make the application. 

The prosecution of an application for a reissue is 
often tedious and troublesome. Such applications are like 
ordinary applications in this respect, that a bad reissue 
may be obtained in a short time, while to procure an 
effective one may require a comparatively long time. 

FEES. — Our lowest charge for reissues is $50, ex- 
clusive of the Government fee, but there are cases 
which demand much larger fees. 



DISCLAIMERS. 



53 




DISCLAIMERS. 

ANOTHER remedy for patents defec- 
tive because they claim more than the 
patentee was first to invent, is that of 



"^^^^ disclaimer. 



t*^*i The law provides that when by 

mistake, and without fraudulent inten- 
tion, a patentee has claimed more 
than he was the first inventor of, he 
or his heirs, or his assigns of the whole or a sectional 
interest in the patent may, upon payment of a Govern- 
ment fee of ten dollars, file in the Patent Office a writ- 
ten disclaimer attested by one or more witnesses, and 
disclaiming such parts of the thing patented as he or 
they may not wish to claim or hold under the patent, 
and that thereafter this disclaimer shall be considered 
as part of the original specification, to the extent of the 
interest of the party or parties filing it. 

This remedy by disclaimer is a process of excision, 
and applicable therefore to those cases only, in which 
the cutting out, from the original specification, of the 
objectionable matter, will still leave in the patent a defi> 
nite and distinguishable claim or claims to some material 
or substantial part of the thing originally patented. 

The distinction between a patent which can be thus 
limited to its proper scope by '* disclaimer," and one in 
which the end can only be accomplished by reissue, is 
that while the latter in its original shape is altogether 
invalid, because the specification does not definitely dis- 
tinguish what the patentee was entitled to, from that 
which is claimed without right, the former is not so, 



54 HOWSON S PATENT OFFICES. 

but is made by the terms of the law vahd for all that part 
which is truly and justly the patentee's own, because that 
part is a material or substantial part of the thing patented ; 
that is, it constitutes in itself a loatentable invention, and 
is expressly and distinctly claimed. 

Where a patent which is too broad can fortunately 
be cured by disclaimer, it is not only proper, but to the 
interest of the patentee, that the step should be taken 
without unnecessary delay. The law provides that if in 
any suit upon such a patent, judgment or decree shall be 
rendered for the plaintiff, no costs shall be recovered 
unless the proper disclaimer has been entered at the 
Patent Office before the commencement of the suit. And 
further, that if in any such suit it appears that there has 
been unreasonable neglect or delay to enter a disclaimer, 
the plaintiff shall not maintain his suit at all. 

Whether a disclaimer will fully meet the require- 
ments of any particular case, is a question to be carefully 
and intelligently weighed. 

FEES. — Our charge for advising upon and attend- 
ing to the drawing and filing of a disclaimer, necessarily 
varies with the varying nature of the cases. 




HOSPITAL CASES. 



55 




HOSPITAL CASES. 

THIS may appear to be a singular name 
to use in connection with any branch 
of patent business, but it is certainly a 
most expressive term to apply to a 
class of cases which have been so 
damaged by mismanagement as to 
I require remedial treatment and cura- 
tive efforts. 
These cases may be classed as follows .: 
First, — Applications the prosecution of which has 
been neglected or mismanaged by attorneys. 

Second. — Applications which have been made by 
inventors themselves, who begin by fancying that the 
preparation of the necessary papers for an application is 
a simple matter, and the prosecution of an application 
easy, but end by finding that professional help is neces- 
sary. 

In every city and considerable town, indeed in almost 
every village, there is some overwise man, some jack-of- 
all-trades, who is ready to offer his services for any kind 
of work, patent soliciting included. With a copy of the 
rules and regulations of the Patent Office, and a very 
little dangerous smattering of patent law, he volunteers 
to assist inventors by the preparation and filing of appli- 
cations ; and the result in most cases is either failure to 
secure a patent at all, or the obtaining of a patent which 
is not worth the paper on which it is printed. 

We have the authority of one of our best Commis- 
sioners for saying *' that a large percentage of the cases 
filed in the office are prepared by men who have no 



56 HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 

qualifications for such duties, and little knowledge 
beyond mere forms ; illiterate men, who advertise to 
work at the cheapest rates, but whose services are dear 
at any price." 

The duty of curing these hospital cases is not always 
a pleasing one; for in many instances the papers are so 
botched that an effective cure is out of the question. 

Of late years, so many cases of this character have 
been placed in our hands, that we have been compelled 
to adopt a stringent system of charges, and to treat them 
as new cases, as far as agency fees are concerned, a por- 
tion of the fee being demanded in advance to cover the 
expense of the necessary searches. In cases of great 
hardship, however, we know how to exercise proper 
liberality. When an unsuccessful applicant for a patent 
desires to put his case in our hands, he can send us a fee 
of $5 with a power of attorney, the form of which we will 
furnish on request. 

This paper will enable us to examine and obtain 
copies of the papers on file in the Patent Office relating 
to the application, after perusing which we will send a 
report to the applicant. 





REPORTS AS TO THE VALIDITY OF PATENTS. 5/ 

REPORTS AS TO THE VALIDITY OF PATENTS. 

-l^¥^S^n nP^E duty of reporting upon the val- 
X idity of a patent is one of great im- 
portance. 

A careful perusal of the patent itself 
may enable us to decide that, owing 
I to a bad specification and wretchedly 
; drawn claims, it is of no value. It is 
• not proper, however, to stop here and 
base a decisive report of the condition of the patent upon 
a mere inspection of the deed itself, for it may well be 
that the patentee was entitled to better claims than 
those appearing in the deed, and that such claims might 
properly be secured by reissue. Whether this be the 
case or not, must be determined, in the first instance, by 
an examination of the papers relating to the patent, on 
file in the Patent Office. These may afford prompt and 
satisfactory proofs that the patent covers quite as much 
as the patentee was entitled to, or they may indicate that 
the patentee appeared to be entitled to more than he 
claimed ; if the latter, a further investigation should be 
prosecuted. 

Again, a patent may appear on its face to be of a most 
substantial character, with sweeping claims ; but there can 
be no more fatal mistake than to take for granted that 
the patentee was entitled to all he claims. 

It is a very common mistake to purchase patents on 
the strength of their formidable appearance, and without 
the exercise of the same precautions which are exercised 
prior to the purchase of other property. This may be 
attributed to the confidence which a patent engenders 



58 HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 

in the -minds of those who are not familiar with the 
subject. 

As on the one hand, a bad patent may result from the 
unskillfulness or carelessness of the patentee or his pro- 
fessional adviser, and a failure to claim all that he might 
have claimed ; so, on the other hand, a patent of formid- 
able appearance may have been improperly or improvi- 
dently granted. During the official examination, a refer- 
ence may have been misplaced, and the most strict and 
painstaking Examiner may, by inadvertence, overlook a 
reference, or a reference damaging to a patent may be 
found in a class of cases, or in publications, totally apart 
from the class to which the Examiner's duties are restricted, 
or the invention claimed in a patent may have been in 
public and common use without the knowledge of the 
Examiner. 

The history of patent litigation shows that patents 
are frequently granted for old inventions, and claims 
allowed to which the patentee was not entitled. While the 
official examination gives a status to a patent which it 
could not otherwise have, it is impossible for the office 
to make such an exhaustive search as will place the va- 
lidity of a patent beyond question. It will thus be seen 
that an investigation on which the reputation of a patent 
is to be based, should not cease with an examination of 
the official files in the case, excepting when they show 
beyond a doubt that the patentee has obtained claims 
quite as strong as the state of the art will permit. 

An exhaustive investigation prior to a report on a 
patent is an arduous, time-consuming task, and a futile 
one unless a practical familiarity with industrial arts 



REPORTS AS TO THE VALIDITY OF PATENTS. 59 

and with publications relating to manufactures, technical 
knowledge, and the legal qualifications necessary to apply 
that knowledge, are brought to bear on the investigation. 

All the United States patents relating to inventions 
of the class to which the patent to be investigated refers, 
must be perused, not superficially, but thoroughly ; then 
the English and French patents must be examined, 
publications must be searched, and failing to discover any 
damaging references by these investigations, it becomes 
necessary to determine whether there are any patents or 
published records outside the class to which the invention 
relates which may contain matter bearing on the patent. 
This last duty is one which is very commonly neglected, 
but it is a very important duty ; for it is quite a common 
thing to find references to patents in publications where 
an inexperienced searcher would not expect to find 
them. 

It is another f rave mistake frequently made by 
novices in patent matters to suppose that the Patent 
Office with its library contains all the information neces- 
sary for a proper search. Patents are quite frequently 
granted for things which have been long in common 
use, but have never been patented or appeared in printed 
publications, and are consequently beyond reach and 
knowledge of the Patent Office authorities. 

It is our practice to conclude our researches prior to 
making reports, by inquiries in such manufactories as the 
nature of the invention may suggest. 

No city presents better opportunities for conducting 
such inquiries than Philadelphia, where there is a greater 
variety of industries than in any city in the world. Our 



6o ' HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 

searches are facilitated by the large and well-selected 
library previously referred to, as it enables us to examine 
at all hours published authorities which otherwise could 
not be reached without spending much time at different 
public libraries. 

Exhaustive researches such as we have described 
-have, of course, different results. In many cases, they 
place patents on the best commercial footing ; in others, 
they point out to the patentee how to strengthen his 
patent by reissue or by the purchase of other patents ; 
while in other cases, the searches may exhibit such a 
prior state of the art, as to show the patent to be quite 
worthless. 

Our fees for such searches and reports are $75 and 
upwards, according to the character of the invention, 
some classes of inventions demanding much more 
elaborate and tedious searches than others. An estimate 
will always be given, and payment of the fee will always 
be required in advance excepting when we are perma- 
nently retained by manufacturers and others to attend to 
their patent business ; and this brings us to another 
branch of our business which may be termed : 





PURCHASE, SALE AND PUBLICATION OF PATENTS. 6l 

PURCHASE, SALE AND PUBLICATION 
OF PATENTS. 

"HILE we are ready to advise as to 
the purchase or sale of patents, and 
to prepare necessary conveyances, 
agreements, etc., relating thereto, we 
never engage personally in the nego- 
tiation of patents, which is entirely 
apart from the duty of soliciting them, 
or of conducting suits before the 
United States Courts. 

We are frequently asked about the best mode of dis- 
posing of patents, and we may give our views on that 
subject here. 

We have always found that the most successful in- 
ventors and owners of patents, have been those who 
relied upon their own efforts and business qualifications 
to turn their property to good account. It must always 
be remembered, however, that a bad patent, or a patent 
with weak claims, is not as easily disposed of as it was a 
. few years ago ; as we have stated in our preface, the 
public has during late years become more familiar with 
the true character of patent property ; but the owner of a 
good patent for a valuable invention, a patent endorsed 
by competent authority, will not have to wait long for a 
customer, or for the necessary capital to develop it, if 
reasonable efforts are made to direct the attention of re- 
liable parties to it. 

While it may be advisable in some instances to call 
the attention of the public to patented inventions by 
advertisements in the papers, nothing can be more dan- 



62 PURCHASE, SALE AND PUBLICATION OF PATENTS. 

gerous than the premature publication of a patented inven- 
tion which promises to be of value and importance. 

Where there is one true inventor there are four or five 
pirates or copyists, who, without brains to originate, look 
out for all published items about novel and startling inven- 
tions, or even insinuate themselves into the confidence of 
the patentee, and then proceed to make what they call 
improvements, which are simply alterations or trifling 
additions, and, by becoming claimants for a patent, under- 
mine the property of the inventor and interfere with his 
sales. 




M^ 
s 




CAVEATS. 63 

CAVEATS. 

^ANY persons make the mistake of 

^supposing that a caveat affords for a 

short time the same protection and 

. security as a patent does for a longer 

time. 

A caveat is a description (accom- 
{ panied, when practicable, with draw- 
= ings) filed in the secret archives of the 
Patent Office, and setting forth concisely and clearly 
some improvement upon which the inventor desires 
time to experiment with a view to perfecting it before 
applying for letters-patent. A caveator is entitled to 
notice if any application be made for letters-patent for a 
like invention at any time within a year from the date 
at which his caveat is filed. He is not, however, entitled 
to notice of any pending application which may have 
been filed before the filing of his caveat, nor of any 
application which may be filed after the expiration of 
one year from the filing of his caveat, unless the latter 
shall have been renewed for another year by the pay- 
ment of a second caveat fee. A caveat may be thus 
renewed from year to year by the annual payment of a 
caveat fee. 

If while a caveat is in force another person applies 
for a patent for the same invention, the caveator will be 
entitled to notice to file his application and to go into 
interference with the other applicant, for the purpose of 
proving priority of invention, and of obtaining the patent 
if he succeed. He must file his application within three 
months from the day on which the notice to him is 



64 CAVEATS. 

deposited in the post-office at Washington, adding the 
regular time for the transmission of the same to him. 
The day when the time for filing application expires is 
mentioned in the notice or indorsed thereon. 

This title to notice is the only privilege which a 
caveat confers. It does not give any exclusive right in 
an invention, of which the courts can take cognizance, 
and therefore does'not enable the caveator to sue parties 
who may make, use, or sell his invention. 

We have so little faith in caveats that we believe it 
would be a benefit to inventors if the law relating to them 
was abolished. 

The safest plan for an inventor is to make a com- 
plete application for a patent, with as little delay as 
possible, and to avoid the expense of a caveat and the 
delay which a caveat always invites in perfecting an 
invention. 

FEES. — The cost of filing a caveat through these 
offices will be $12, ^15, or $20, according to the nature 
of the invention. Payment, v/ith Government fee of $10, 
due prior to filing the papers. 




PATENTS FOR DESIGNS. 



65 




PATENTS FOR DESIGNS- 

ESIGN patents are entirely distinct 
from ordinary patents. The latter 
relate to new machines, devices, man- 
ufactures, or compositions of matter ; 
1 design patents to shape, configuration, 
or ornamentation. 

Artists, designers, and inventors 
^can procure patents for designs for 
three and one-half, seven, or fourteen years, at their 
option ; the Government fee for the first being ^10, for 
the second $15, and for the third J30. 

No model is required for patents of this class. The 
drawing, however, should be very complete, and the 
specifications full and clear. 

FEES. — Our charges for design patents, exclusive of 
the Government fees, are $15, or ^20, or ^25, according 
to the character of the design. The fee rarely exceeds 
$20 ; and when a number of design patents relating to 
objects of the same generic character, as, for instance, a 
series of fabrics, are required, a deduction will be made 
from the lowest fee above given. 





66 TRADEMAK-KS, LABELS, COPYRIGHTS. 

TRADEMARKS. LABELS, COPYRIGHTS. 

TRADEMARKS. 

REGISTRATION of trademarks in the 
Patent Office was provided for by Act 
of Congress of July, 1870, and several 
thousand trademarks had been regis- 
tered under this law up to Novem- 
ber 17, 1879, on which day the 
i Supreme Court of the United States 
'rendered a decision holding the act 
to be unconstitutional. 

It must not be supposed that the overturning of this 
particular Act of Congress had the effect of overturning 
trademark property, or of changing either the nature of 
the right, or the remedy for infraction of the right, save 
only as to the forum in which that remedy must be 
sought. The act did not ^r^<2/<? trademark property ; such 
property had been recognized and protected in the courts 
of the various states long before the act. The act did not 
even take away the jurisdiction of the state courts in such 
cases, it merely undertook to confer jurisdiction on the 
courts of the United States ; save in this particular, and 
in the provision of a system of registry, the law of trade- 
marks was not changed by the act, nor any new principle 
introduced. The state courts continue to have jurisdic- 
tion of trademark cases. 

The basis of trademark property is adoption and 
use, by which is meant an actual application of the mark, 
in the course of trade, to the goods which it is intended 
to distinguish in the market from other goods of like 
class coming from other manufacturers or merchants. 



TRADEMARKS. 67 

Origination or invention has nothing to do with the mat- 
ter ; the mark may be an old and common word, picture 
or sign, the right is not to the mark considered by itself, 
but simply to its use upon certain goods, for the purpose 
of telling the public that those goods come from the per- 
son so marking them. It is not to be understood, how- 
ever, that any word or words will necessarily constitute a 
good and valid trademark, because the party may have 
been first to use them in that particular connection ; for 
example, a manufacturer or merchant cannot, as a rule, 
so appropriate words which are simply descriptive of qual- 
ity, and which may therefore be truthfully and properly 
used by other manufacturers or merchants issuing like 
goods of like quality, and there are other restrictions and 
qualifications of the right which have been evolved in 
many judicial rulings, during a long period of years. 

To enter into a dissertation on trademark law, how- 
ever, would be out of place here. We merely wish to 
correct any impression that might otherwise exist, that the 
Supreme Court decision to which we have referred has 
the effect of vitiating trademark property, or of putting 
such property beyond the pale of protection. 

In March, 1881, Congress, under the clause of the 
Constitution providing for the regulation of commerce, 
passed an act, enabling owners of ^'trademarks, used in 
commerce with foreign nations or with the Indian tribes,'' 
to obtain registration of such trademarks, by complying 
with requirements similar to those provided for under 
the law of 1870. Trademarks not so *' used in commerce 
with foreign nations or with the Indian tribes ** cannot 
be registered, however, under this Act. 



168 TRADEMARKS, LABELS, COPYRIGHTS. 

The certificate of registration will continue in force 
for thirty years. 

Fees — ^40, including Government fee of $25. 

LABELS. 

By Act of June i8th, 1874, it was provided that certain 
prints and labels should be registered in the Patent 
Office. 

By the word print is meant any device, picture, word 
or words, figure or figures (not a trademark) impressed 
or drrectly stamped upon an article of manufacture to 
denote the name of the manufacturer, place of manu- 
facture, style of goods, or other matter. 

The word "label" means a slip or piece of paper, or 
other material, to be attached to manufactured articles, 
or to bottles, boxes, or packages containing them, and 
bearing an inscription (not a trademark), as, for instance, 
the name of the manufacturer, place of manufacture, 
the quality of goods, directions for use. 

The words *' articles of manufacture** to which such 
print or label is applicable by said act, mean all vendible 
commodities produced by hand, machinery or art. 

The certificate of such registration will continue in 
force for twenty-eight years. 

FEES. — Jig, Government fee of $6^ 

COPYRIGHTS. 

Although the Patent Office has no control over copy- 
rights, we may refer to them now because there is much 
confusion in the popular mind as to what are the differ- 
ences between copyrights, design patents, trademarks 
and labels. 



COPYRIGHTS. 69 

The present copyright act permits any citizen or 
resident of the United States who shall be the author, 
inventor, designer or proprietor of any book, map, chart, 
dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, print 
or photograph or negative thereof, or of a painting, 
drawing, chromo, statue or statuary, and of models and 
designs intended to be perfected as works of art, to secure 
a copyright therefor, for twenty-eight years, and gives a 
right of renewal to himself or widow or children for 
fourteen years more ; and authors may reserve the right 
to dramatize and translate their own works. The statute 
also gives the author of a dramatic composition, upon 
complying with the requirements of the statute, the sole 
liberty of publicly performing it or causing it to be per- 
formed, or represented by others. 

The aid of an attorney is not required to secure a 
copyright ; all that is necessary is for the applicant to 
send two copies of the title of the book or other article, or 
a description of the painting, statue, etc., to the Librarian 
of Congress before publication, with a fee of 50 cents, or 
of J I if he desires a certificate of the record; and two 
copies of the book, or in case of a painting, etc., a photo- 
graph of the same, must be sent to the Librarian within 
ten days after publication. 



The limits of this pamphlet will not permit us to 
enter into a lengthy discussion of the confusion or appar- 
ent confusion between the design act and copyright laws, 
or to point out the limits of the application of the differ- 
ent acts, as determined by the action of the authorities ; 
but as we are frequently consulted about these matters. 



JO TRADEMARKS, LABELS, COPYRIGHTS. 

we will endeavor to throw some light on the subject by 
explaining how far it is possible for one man to acquire 
different kinds of protection upon or in connection with 
one and the same thing. 

We will suppose that a man has invented a machine, 
say for the manufacture of bolts. 

First, — The mode of treating the heated metal may 
be new, irrespective of the machinery employed, in which 
case he would be entitled to a patent for the mode or 
process. 

Second, — If the machine is new, he would of course 
be entitled to a patent with claims for the devices com- 
posing the machine, or different elements of the ma- 
chine. 

Third. — The bolt itself might be a new bolt differing 
from those heretofore made, and possessing peculiar 
novel and useful features, in which case he would be en- 
titled to a patent for the bolt as a new article of manu- 
facture irrespective of the process and machine. 

All these instances relate to ordinary patents granted 
for seventeen years ; and we may remark here that the 
first and most important duty which an attorney has to 
perform on investigating an invention submitted to him, 
is to decide whether it can be best covered by a process 
patent, machine patent, or by a patent for the product, 
or whether claims should be introduced for both the pro- 
cess and machine, or the process or product in one pat- 
ent, or whether separate patents should be applied for. 

Fourth. — The inventor, in designing the machine, 
may make a frame of peculiar shape and of ornamental • 
character. 



COPYRIGHTS. 71 

For this, if new, he would be entitled to a design 
patent. 

Fifth. — He might desire to give his machine, if he 
manufactured it for sale to others, or to the products of his 
machine, a peculiar name, the " Keystone Bolt Machine," 
or " Keystone Bolts; " this would be a trademark, provid- 
ing always that the name was first adopted by him in 
connection with that particular class of machines or goods. 

Sixth. — He might adopt a special trade "label to be 
attached to the machine, or to the products of the machine, 
or to packages of the product. 

This label would be a proper subject for registration, 
under the Act of June 18, 1874. 

Seventh. — While we are not prepared to say that a 
simple photograph of the machine would be a subject for 
a copyright as a work of art, there can be no doubt that 
a pictorial composition of which the machine should con- 
stitute a prominent element might be copyrighted as a 
work of art, and certainly a pamphlet descriptive of the 
machine would be a proper subject for a copyright. 

We might extend these remarks to a much greater 
length, but the above will suffice to give a general idea 
of the applicability of patents, design patents, trademarks, 
label registrations, and copyrights. 



72 CHARGES. 



CHARGES. 



SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 

In preparing and prosecuting applications for pat- 
ents^ we avoid extra charges as far as possible, our 
services for the stated fees including, in all ordinary- 
cases, preliminary examinations, specification, drawing 
(one sheet), notarial fee, packing, express charges, and 
correspondence. 

As we have a confidential clerk stationed at Wash- 
ington, and as that city is visited by a member of the 
firm at frequent intervals, we do not tax our clients with 
the charges frequently made by attorneys for visiting 
Washington, and for personal interviews with Examiners 
in prosecuting ordinary applications. 

The entire cost of a patent at these offices, where the 
invention is simple, is $75, including first and second 
Government fees, $55 being payable before the papers 
are sent to the Patent Office. 

Additional fees will be required when extra sheets 
of drawings are demanded with the view of avoiding 
the expense of models; when draughtsmen are sent 
out of the city, when time is consumed in putting crude 
sketches into proper shape ; when a specification and 
drawings are unusually elaborate and intricate ; in cases 
of appeal, and when the absence of the heads of the 
firm from the city is required in special cases. 

Although these provisions are made for extra charges 
in exceptional applications, it should be understood that 
the entire cost of a patent in the majority of cases does 
not exceed the above sum of $75. 



SOLICITING DEPARTMENT. 



73 



That our fees are looked upon as reasonable in view 
of the services rendered, and the discarding of extra 
charges frequently made by solicitors, is evidenced by 
the names, given hereafter, of many prominent and suc- 
cessful inventors for whom we have transacted business 
for many years. 

It should als.o be distinctly understood that the fees 
referred to hereafter are due (with the exception of the 
second Government fee of $20, mentioned in the second 
item) after the specifications and drawings have been 
prepared, and before we are saddled with the responsi- 
bility of prosecuting a case before the Patent Office ; that 
is, before the application is filed. 

This plan of charging is invariably practiced by 
patent solicitors of standing and experience, and such as 
possess the confidence of successful inventors and manu- 
facturers who understand the value and importance of 
the proper prosecution of applications, and of carefully 
drawn and valid patents. 




Note. — For summary of charges see page lo. 



LAW DEPARTMENT 

OF 

H0W80N8' PATENT OFFICES, 

119 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



CHAS. HOWSON, 

ATTORNEY-AT-LAW AND COUNSEL IN PATENT CASES. 

(Twelve years' practice before the United States Courts.) 



H. HOWSON, Sr., 

ENGINEER AND CONSULTING EXPERT IN PATENT CASES. 

(Twenty-six years' practice before the Patent Oflace.) 



HUBERT HOWSON^ 

ATTORNEY-AT-LAW. 



COPYRIGHT 1880. HOWSON &. SONS. 




"jd LAW DEPARTMENT. 

LAW DEPARTMENT. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Charles Howson, attorney-at-law, and counsel in 
patent cases, has, for ten years past, had immediate charge 
of this department, and is assisted by Hubert Howson, 
atttorney-at-law ; the senior partner, Henry Howson, 
who has had an experience of many years in preparing" 
patent cases for trial, and who is a practical engineer, 
acting as advisory counsel and consulting expert. 

The duties involved in the management of this 
department are the conducting of suits relating to patents, 
trademarks, and copyrights, before the United States 
Courts, interferences before the Patent Office, extension 
cases before Congress and the preparation of agreements, 
assignments, and other deeds relating to patents. Our 
engagements in the above duties compel us to decline all 
general law practice. 

The published reports indicate by no means a large 
proportion of patent cases tried and decided. 

Sometimes suits are commenced as a thregitening 
measure, with no intention of proceeding beyond the 
filing of the bills of complaint and issuing subpoenas. 

Other suits are dropped after the filing of answer to 
the bill of complaint, because the plaintiff or his 
counsel is satisfied by the terms of the answer that it 
would be fruitless to proceed ; other cases are settled by 
amicable arrangements between plaintiff and defendant 
(a wise proceeding when it can be brought about), and 
others again are dropped after much expense has been 
incurred, owing to the late discovery by the plaintiff that 



INTRODUCTORY. ^^ 

the charge of infringement cannot be sustained, or by 
the defendant that it would be futile to further resist. 

Large sums are wasted yearly in patent litigation, 
and this waste may be attributed largely to the premature 
action of those concerned, and to the want of proper 
precaution on the part of contestants or their attorneys. 
In speaking of patent suits, the late Judge Grier said, 
"The trouble is that lawyers do not understand mechanics, 
and mechanics do not understand law." While there 
are to-day able patent lawyers with a knowledge of me- 
chanics, and accomplished mechanics who are better 
versed in patent law than many lawyers w^ho have de- 
voted some attention to the subject, it cannot be doubted 
that much reckless waste of money in patent litigation is 
still due to the trouble referred to by Judge Grier. 

Lawyers who are not familiar with the useful arts, 
have but little technical knowledge, and do not under- 
stand what authorities to refer to for information, or who 
have not been trained to the ready understanding of 
mechanical illustrations, are not in good condition for 
conducting patent cases. Even if they have a general 
understanding of the principles of patent law, they must 
look for the assistance of some one who is practically 
familiar with the art to which the controversy relates, to 
make the proper searches. The result of this divided 
duty is increased expense and unnecessary publicity of 
the strong and weak points of a plaintiff's or defendant's 
case. 

The lawyer who volunteers to take charge of a 
patent case before the courts without the proper trainmg, 
qualifications and facilities for performing his duties 



78 LAW DEPARTMENT. 

properly, is on a par with the mechanic of education too 
hmited to enable him to understand law, who under- 
takes to help inventors before the Patent Office. 

To properly conduct patent suits, there must be the 
application of both legal and technical knowledge; and 
if there was a little more of the latter at the commence- 
ment of litigation, there might be fewer disappointments 
and less waste of money. 



w: 




OUR U. S. COURT PRAOTICE. 

"HEN a patentee whose patent has been 
infringed on, or a defendant against 
whom a bill of complaint has been 
filed, seeks for advice at these offices, 
^ the first proceeding is for both mem- 
(bersofthe firm to carefully examine 
the patent involved. If the case, upon 
■^^^tfiffllL^^^!/^ this examination, appears such that 
the party seeking advice can be justly advised to incur 
any expense whatever in the pending or threatened liti- 
gation, a retaining fee will be required prior to further 
consultation and investigation. 

The amount of a retainer varies, according to the 
nature of the invention to which the prospective litigation 
may relate. 

Should a plaintiff who seeks our services be a pat- 
entee who has secured his patent through these offices, 
or a firm for whom we have conducted and continue to 
conduct business, and with whose patent matters we are 
consequently familiar, the retainer will be light. 

It is impossible to state in advance what the cost of 



INTERFERENCES. 



79 



a patent suit will be ; but in all cases an estimate can be 
given of special or per diem services ; but there are many 
incidental expenses, such as the charges of the officers 
before whom the testimony is taken, traveling expenses, 
printing, etc., for which no estimate can be given in 
advance. 

The library attached to these offices is an impor- 
tant aid to us in making, promptly, investigations which 
could otherwise only be made by a tedious examination 
of the books of different public libraries during restricted 
hours. 

We are prepared to furnish applicants with pamphlets 
relating to contested cases conducted by us before the 
United States Courts and the Patent Office. 

INTERFERENCES. 

INTERFERENCES are proceedings 
instituted for the purpose of determin- 
ing the question of priority of invention 
^between two or more parties claiming 
the same patentable invention. 

The rules regarding the conduct 
of interference cases are of such a char- 
acter, and the appeals so numerous, 
that they cannot be prosecuted without much sacrifice of 
time and money. 

There are other reasons why every proper effort 
should be made to dispose of an interference without 
entering upon costly and tedious litigation. In the first 
place, a controversy begun by an interference in the Pat- 
ent Office may afterwards be continued in the courts; 




8o LAW DEPARTMENT. 

but the greatest objection to interferences, necessary as 
they are to decide questions of priority arising in the 
Patent Office, is the premature publicity which they tend 
to give to unprotected inventions. 

As soon as the final interference is declared, the 
papers of the application on file are open for examina- 
tion by the contestants and their attorneys, and as soon 
as the examination of witnesses commences, the inven- 
tions are exposed, and become the subject of gossip. 
The importance which litigation imparts to inventions 
may tempt the cupidity of copyists and adapters, who, 
obtaining a knowledge of the points in controversy, may 
set their small brains to work, and contrive, by means of 
so-called changes or improvements, to appropriate that 
or part of that for which the contestants are fighting ; or 
may manage at least to insinuate themselves, for their 
own purposes, into the controversy. 

It is not an unfrequent occurrence for the successful 
contestant, after months of litigation, to find that he has, 
by the necessary exposure of his invention, created an 
array of antagonists which he may not be able to dis- 
pose of without further litigation, either in the Patent 
Office or before the courts. 

Interferences are necessary evils, and must be met 
by precautions, which we will now explain, and which 
we invariably adopt, our remarks applying in the first 
instance to those interferences (the most common) which 
are declared between two pending applications. 

As soon as the preliminary interference has been 
declared between the application of a client and another 
application, we immediately procure copies of the papers 



INTERFERENCES. 8l 

filed in the Patent Office by the opposing party, to deter- 
mine whether there is in fact any interference between 
the inventions. 

An examiner may conchide that there is a conflict 
where really none exists, and if the office can be con- 
vinced of the mistake, there is an end to the interference ; 
or it may be shown, after careful investigation of the state 
of the art, that neither party is entitled to what he claims, 
or that the history of prior inventions is such that both 
parties can obtain patents with modified claims, or, that 
the feature involved in the interference represents but a 
trifling portion of our client's invention, and that he may 
abandon this feature without material injury to himself, 
the interference being thus avoided. 

In other cases, the opposing party may be induced 
to yield to some extent, with the same result. 

' When the inventions described in interfering appli- 
cations are the same, and the claims substantially the 
same, it becomes a question whether it is best to settle 
' all differences by a combination of interests. This has 
frequently been brought about by the good judgment of 
attorneys and a little forbearance on the part of contest- 
ants. Some of the most valuable patent properties are 
founded on the coalition of inventors who have been 
brought into conflict by the declaration of an interfer- 
ence, but who have settled their difficulties and united in 
turning their joint ingenuity to profitable account, instead 
of spending money in a controversy, and at the same 
time exposing their unpatented inventions. 

There are, of course, many cases in which any amica- 
ble arrangements between contestants is out of the ques- 



82 LAW DEPARTMENT. 

tion, and then it becomes the duty of the attorney to 
prosecute his cHent's case with all possible urgency, but 
in such cases it is his duty first to satisfy himself and his 
client, by preliminary investigations, that the latter has 
something to fight for. 

The instances in which large sums of money have 
been expended in prosecuting interferences only to find 
that neither party was entitled to the thing claimed, are 
far from uncommon, nor is it a rare thing for contestants 
to settle their differences before the end of a hotly con- 
tested interference case. 

After the declaration of a preliminary interference 
each party thereto, if he conclude to contest the matter, 
must file in the Patent Office a preliminary statement 
under oath, " showing the date of the original concep- 
tion, the date that the invention was reduced to model or 
drawings, the date of its completion, and the extent of 
use." 

These papers, to which the contestants cannot have 
access until the final interference is declared by the prop- 
er officer, are opened by the latter at a time appointed ; 
if they show that one of the parties cannot date his 
invention back of the time when the other party made 
his application, priority will be awarded to the earliest 
applicant ; but if no such state of affairs is exhibited by 
the papers, a final interference will be declared, the sub- 
ject of controversy properly defined, and the contest will 
begin in earnest, the final decision being based on testi- 
mony taken in much the same manner as in equity cases 
before the United States Courts, a certain time being 
allotted to each party within which to take his proofs, and 



INTERFERENCES. 83 

a day being set for a hearing of the case by the Examiner 
of interferences. 

From the decision of the interference Examiner, an 
appeal may be taken to the Board of Examiners-in-chief 
upon payment of a Government fee of ^lo; and from 
their decision an appeal lies to the Commissioner of 
patents in person, the Government fee being $20. 

If the party against whom the Commissioner decides 
be an applicant, and be dissatisfied and able and willing 
to continue the contest, or rather begin it anew, Section 
4915, Revised Statutes, it seems, will enable him to gratify 
his wish. This section, which we have had occasion 
to mention before, enables him to file a bill in equity in 
one of the Circuit Courts of the United States, and there- 
upon to have the case tried and decided anew ; and 
whether successful or not in this proceeding, he will have 
the privilege of paying all the expenses of it. 

The testimony in interference cases and the briefs of 
counsel must be printed, unless, for reasons satisfactory 
to the Commissioner, the printing be dispensed with. To 
print is the rule. 

There is a class of interference cases in which an 
applicant whose case has been rejected on reference to 
an existing patent thinks he can date his invention back 
of that of the patentee, and accordingly demands the 
declaration of an interference. 

The applicant knows the date of the patentee's ap- 
plication, but it is not until he has access to the patentee's 
preliminary statement after the declaration of the final 
interference that he knows how far back the patentee 
dates his invention. The applicant after perusing this 



^4 LAV/ DEPARTMENT. 

Statement may conclude that it is useless to continue the 
controversy, or the statement may be such as to convince 
him that he is prior in date to the patentee, when the in- 
terference will proceed. 

When one contestant charges another with piracy, 
there is little or no hope of any settlement, the contest 
must go on ; and unhappily contests in such cases are 
always virulent, tedious and costly. 

The records of the Patent Office show that the steal- 
ing of inventions is far too common, that confiding in- 
ventors are not unfrequently deceived by their supposed 
friends, who hurry to the Patent Office with stolen inven- 
tions, and secure patents in advance of the actual inven- 
tors ; hence the propriety of giving the latter an oppor- 
tunity of recovering their stolen ideas. But like all good 
laws this relating to the declaration of an interference 
between an applicant and a patentee has been abused. 
It has been used as a means of harassing patentees by 
trumped-up charges, with the view of driving them into 
the making of bargains with the assailants, or in order 
to make capital before the courts. 

The only remedy against these mischiefs would ap- 
pear to be a law placing a patent beyond reach of inter- 
ference in the Patent Office after it is more than two years 
old — questions relating to the patentee's rights after the 
lapse- of two years being left entirely with the courts. 

If in an interference between an application and a 
prior patent, 'Apriority" is awarded to the applicant, the 
Commissioner cannot annul or vacate the prior patent, 
he can only grant another patent to the applicant, so that 
there shall be two adverse patents extant for the same 



INTERFERENCES. 85 

thing. For this state of affairs or for the case in which 
by mistake two such patents have been granted, the law 
has considerately made special provision for settling the 
matter by litigation in the courts. 

Section 4918, Revised Statutes, provides that when- 
ever there are two interfering patents, any party interested 
in any one of them may have relief against the interfering 
patentee, and all parties interested under him, by suit in 
equity against the owners of the interfering patent ; and 
the court may, upon due proceedings had, adjudge and 
declare either of the patents void in whole or in part, or 
invalid in any part of the United States, according to the 
interest of the parties. 

It will be noticed that this, while enabling the party 
who has been successful in a Patent Office interference, to 
perhaps obtain, by proving his better right over again, a 
really effective judgment, which shall take from his oppo- 
nent the ostensible title to which he has been twice deci- 
ded to have no right ; — also gives that opponent a second 
chance. The Court may adjudge either of the interfering 
patents to be bad in whole or in part. 

We have said enough about interferences to show 
that they are controversies to be avoided if possible. 

We shall be glad to furnish clients with pamphlets 
relating to interferences conducted at these offices ; they 
are cases on the management of which we can bring an 
experience of more than twenty years to bear ; indeed, 
during that time, this office has always had charge of one 
or more of these cases. 

As regards the fees charged for these cases, they are 
somewhat less than in cases before the courts. It is 



86 



LAW DEPARTMENT. 



impossible to tell in advance what the cost of conducting- 
an interference case will be, we can only state in advance 
oy\x per diem charges. 

In concluding this portion of our pamphlet, we may 
say that we are always ready to prepare agreements and 
other legal documents, to give opinions based on searches, 
referred to in another portion of the pamphlet, our main 
aim throughout being to offer to our clients the advantage 
of finding in the one establishment the varied technical 
and professional assistance which they may need in busi- 
ness connected with patents. 





.<y»®»v^ 






FOREIGN 
DEPARTMENT 

OF 

HOWSONS' 

PATENT OFFICES, 

119 South 4th Street, 





PHILADELPHIA. 







COPYRIGHTED 1880. HOWSON & SON* 



88 HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 



W! 




FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 

'HILE the manufacturing countries of 
Europe afford profitable fields for the 
working of really useful inventions, 
great caution should be exercised by 
American inventors in securing for- 
eign Patents. 

It must be remembered, however, 
that, with the exception of Germany, 
Russia and Canada, no patent-granting country in Europe 
has adopted a system of examinations like our own, pat- 
ents being simply granted without any material criticism 
of the papers presented. As the patent laws of foreign 
countries do not provide for the repairing of patents by 
reissues, it will be seen that great reliance must be placed 
on the character and qualifications of the foreign agents, 
in order that justice to the patentee may be assured. 

As in this country, the value of a patent in European 
states is in a great measure estimated by the standing of 
the agent through whom it was procured. 

In England, for instance, the first question asked by 
the intended purchaser of a patent is ** Who prepared the 
papers ?" 

Care should be taken first that the papers be sent 
from this country in such shape as to secure the best pos- 
sible patents ; and, secondly, that experienced agents of 
reliability and good standing be employed abroad to ob- 
tain the patents. 

In regard to the preparation of the necessary papers, 
it may be remarked that there are many popular errors 
as to the requirements of the different countries wherein 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 89 

patents are sought. As an instance of these errors may- 
be cited the general delusion, not confined to inventors, 
but entertained by too many agents in this country, that 
in applying for British patents it is merely necessary for 
the inventor, or his agent, to send abroad a copy of the pa- 
pers prepared for the American patent. The possible evil 
results of such a course will be understood when it is 
borne in mind that the specifications of English and 
other foreign patents are, or should be, very different 
documents from those required in this country ; and that 
an invention with a variety of modifications, which would 
require separate United States patents, can be included 
in one English patent, if the title and specifications be 
carefully prepared by one experienced in such matters. 

Since the establishment of these offices, twenty-six 
years ago, we have invariably adhered to the rule of em- 
ploying none but gentlemen of the highest professional 
standing to represent us abroad, preferring to pay the 
fees which the value of their services can command, 
rather than to run such risks as are foreshadowed in the 
lower charges of men of lower standing. 

The procuring of foreign patents has long been a 
leading branch of our business, and one for the prosecu- 
tion of which we may fairly claim to have peculiar ad- 
vantages. The extent of this branch of our business has 
been for several years second to none in this country ; 
and as our senior partner has himself practiced as a 
patent solicitor abroad, inventors may be satisfied that 
their foreign papers will be well prepared. 

Inventors desirous of procuring foreign patents are 
cautioned to take the necessary preliminary steps before 



90 HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

the issue of their United States patents, since in most 
foreign countries vahd patents cannot be granted for in- 
ventions which have been pubhshed in such countries 
prior to the appHcation for a patent there. The Official 
Gazette of the United States Patent Office is sent abroad 
immediately on the issue of the United States patent ; and 
this in many cases is considered sufficient publication to 
bar the grant of a valid patent. Furthermore, when a 
patent is issued here, any one can obtain a printed copy, 
which can be sent at once to a foreign country and pat- 
ented there, in violation of the rights of the true in- 
ventor. 

The best and, in fact, the only remedy which the 
American inventor has against such a fraudulent act, is 
to have the papers prepared and sent abroad before the 
publication of the invention in this country. 

In the following pages will be found particulars relat- 
ing to patents in different countries, with estimate of the 
cost in United States currency. These particulars are 
necessarily brief, but will suffice to point out the leading 
features of the laws of different countries. 

SYSTEM OF CHARGES. 

It should be understood that the estimates given 
relate to ordinary cases and signify the cost in United 
States Currency, and that they include all Government 
fees, and agency fees, both here and abroad, as well as 
the cost of specifications, drawings, and everything neces- 
sary to complete the application. When patents for the 
same invention are taken out in several countries at the 
same time, a reduction may be made. We make a reduc- 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 9I 

tion also in cases where no drawings are required ; but 
where the drawings and specifications are very elaborate, 
the fees may be increased to a limited extent. 




CANADA. 

The total cost of obtaining a Canadian patent 
through our agency is $65, including the Government fee ; 
such patent being for a term of five years. This term, 
however, can be extended to ten years by the payment 
of $20 Government fee ; and may be further extended to 
the full term of fifteen years by an additional payment 
of $20. But in any case the patent cannot extend beyond 
the term of the prior foreign patent, if any has been 
granted, for the same invention. 

A model is required in every case which can be 
represented by a model. 

Note. — No valid patent can be obtained in Ganada 
for an invention which has already been patented in any 
foreign country for more than one year. 

The patented article or machine cannot be imported 
into Canada after the expiration of twelve months from 
the date of the patent. 

It has been recently decided that the invention need 
not be worked in Canada within the two years, but that, 
at the expiry of two years, any citizen of the Dominion 



92 HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 

has a right to exact from the patentee a license to use 
the invention patented, by applying to the owner, and 
on payment of a fair royalty. 




GREAT BRITAIN. 

British Letters Patent cover England, Wales, Scot- 
land, Ireland, and the Channel Islands, but not the 
Colonies, most of which grant separate patents under 
laws of their own. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum, fourteen years ; but 
if the invention has been previously patented in other 
countries, the British patent will not be valid after the 
expiration of any such previous foreign patent. 

Cost, from $280 to ^310, payable in advance; or, if 
preferred, $120 may be paid in advance, and the balance 
within three months. 

Note. — (i.) Payment of the entire fees at once 
secures greater expedition in the completion of the 
patent, — an important point, since it would appear from 
recent rulings that in the case of conflicting claims, 
priority in law will be adjudged to the patentee who first 
secures the seal. 

(2.) A stamp duty of ;^5o is payable before the end 
of the third year of the patent, and a further duty of ;!^ 100 
before the end of the seventh year. If either of these 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 93 

duties be not paid in time, the patent is irrevocably 
lost. 

(3.) It is not necessary that the patentee should be 
the original inventor, and neither power of attorney nor 
model is required. The patent is granted without exam- 
ination as to the novelty of the invention, but the British 
patent will be invalid if the invention has been previously 
shown or described in any printed publication within 
the kingdom. 

(See preface to " Foreign Department ** as to publi- 
cation of United States patents abroad, page 90. ) 

Useful Designs. — ^Articles having some peculiar 
shape or design which renders them ''useful'* can be 
registered under the ''Useful Designs Act" for a term of 
three years, at a cost of from $S$ to ^100. 

Ornamental Designs can be registered at a cost 
and for terms varying with the class of goods to. which 
the design is applied. 




FRANCE. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum, fifteen years ; but can 
in no case extend beyond the term of an original foreign 
patent for the same invention. 

Cost — including Government tax for first year, ^100. 

Note. — ( i . ) An annual tax of about $2 5 must be paid. 



94 howson's patent offices. 

(2.) The invention must be worked in France within 
two years from the date of the delivery of the patent, and 
operation must not afterwards be discontinued for two 
successive years. The patented articles cannot be im^ 
ported. 

(3.) To effect a registered assignment of a patent, 
the entire tax for theremainder of the years during which 
the patent has to run at the time of the transfer must be 
paid into the Treasury. 

A French patent i« granted without examination, 
and without guarantee of the Government. Power of 
attorney to the agent is required, but models are dis- 
pensed with. A previous publication of the invention 
in any country renders a French patent invalid. 




BELGIUM. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum, twenty years ; but in 
case the invention has been previously patented else- 
where, the Belgian patent will expire at the same time as 
the original foreign patent. 

Cost — includingGovernmenttax for the first year, ^75. 

Note. — (i.) Annual tax to be paid, amounting for 
the second year to about $6, and increasing annually, 
thereafter, at the rate of about $2 per annum to the end 
of the term. 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 95 

(2.) The invention must be worked in Belgium within 
one year after putting it into operation abroad. 

(3.) The Belgian patent, as in most of the other for- 
eign countries, may be taken out by the inventor or his 
assignee, from whom a power of attorney to the agent is 
required. No model is necessary. No official examina- 
tion by the authorities is made. But if the invention has 
been previously worked in Belgium by parties indepen- 
dently of the inventor, or has been previously published 
(except in a Government publication), the Belgian pat- 
ent will be invalid. 




GERMANY. 
Under the Imperial Act of July, 1877, a German 
patent extends to all the States of the German Empire, 
including : 

1. Prussia. 

2. Bavaria. 

3. Baden. 

4. Saxony. 

5. Wurtemburg, etc. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum, fifteen years. 
Cost — $100, including the first year's tax. 
In case of refusal of application by the Examiner, 
there will be an additional charge of $25 for appeal. 



96 HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 

Note. — (i.) An annual tax must be paid, amounting 
for the second year to ^3, for the third of £^, and increas- 
ing at the rate of £2 los. per annum. 

(2.) The patent may be withdrawn by the Govern- 
ment after three years, if the invention has not been 
carried into operation, or if the necessary steps to that 
end have not been taken, or if the patentee refuses a 
license when a fair royalty is offered, and it is for the 
public good to grant such license. 

(3.) Power of attorney from the inventor or the owner 
of the invention is required, but models are not neces- 
sary, except in fire-arm cases. A valid German patent 
cannot be obtained for an invention which has been 
previously published there or elsewhere. Hence German 
patents should be applied for before the United States 
patent for the same invention is granted, and therefore 
the papers should be sent abroad at least two weeks 
before the final Government fee is paid here. 



We have grouped Canada, England, France, Bel- 
gium, and Germany together as the foreign countries in 
which, as a rule, patent property is most available and 
valuable. The last four being contiguous manufacturing 
countries, a patent in one of them is likely to be made 
more valuable by patents in the others, while the Canadian 
patent is a valuable auxiliary to an United States patent. 

There are numerous inventions which are of such 
general utility, or which are specially adapted to the 
wants or capacities of some of the countries hereinafter 
named, that such inventions, if patented in these coun- 
tries, might become sources of profit to the inventors. 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 



97 




AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum, fifteen years ; but in 
no case longer than a previous foreign patent for the same 
invention. One application suffices for both countries, 
but a separate patent for Hungary is granted with that 
for Austria, and without any additional expense. 

It is usual to apply for a term of one year, with the 
privilege of prolongation from year to year. 

Cost — including Government tax for one year, $ioo. 

Note. — ( i . ) To maintain the patent from year to year, 
Government and municipal taxes must be paid, amount- 
ing for the first five years to about $iS per year, and 
increasing from the fifth to the tenth year at the rate of 
about $5 per year, and after the tenth year, at the rate of 
about $S per year. 

(2. ) The invention must be operated in Austria within 
cne year from the delivery of the patent, and the opera- 
tion must not cease for two consecutive years. Actual 
working of the invention during the first year must be 
proved to an official commission. Prior publication in 
Austria, or prior working there, is a bar to a valid patent. 

(3.) In Austria, and in each of the continental coun- 
tries hereinafter named, no models are required, but in 
each case a legalized power of attorney from the inven- 
tor or his assignee, to the agent, is necessary. 



98 HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES. 




ITALY. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum, fifteen years, but not 
longer than the term of a previous foreign patent. 

Cost. — According to term asked for. For six-year 
term, including annual tax for first year, $125 to $135. 

Note. — (i.) Annual tax to be paid, amounting for 
second and third years to about $15 ; from fourth to sixth 
years, ^20; from seventh to ninth, $25 ; tenth to twelfth^ 
$30 ; thirteenth to fifteenth, $35 ; in addition to which there 
]s a small tax for each extension of term asked for. 

(2.) Invention must be worked in Italy within one 
year, if the patent be for less than six ; but if the patent 
be for six years or over, two years are allowed for opera- 
tion. 




SPAIN. 

INCLUDiNQ CUBA AND OTHER COLONIES. 
NEW LAW OF AUGUST, 1873. 



Term of Patent. — Twenty years, if the invention 
has not been previously published or patented anywhere. 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 99 

Ten years if it has been patented elsewhere within two 
years preceding the application in ' Spain. Five years if 
patented elsewhere more than two years previously. 

Cost. — gioo. 

Note. — Invention to be worked in Spain within two 
years, and operation must be certified, and the working- 
must not cease for more than a year and a day during 
the term of the patent. There is an annual tax of twenty 
francs for the second year, and increasing at the rate 
of ten francs each year. 




RUSSIA. 

Term of Patent.— For three, five, or ten years, 
without privilege of extension. The application is sub- 
ject to official examination ; but the patent, if granted, is 
not guaranteed by the Govern:ii3nt. Prior application or 
use of the invention in Russia is a bar to a valid 
patent. 

Cost. — $550 for ten years. 

Note. — The invention must be worked in Russia 
within the first quarter of the duration of the privilege 
dating from the da.y of delivery. Operation to be certi- 
fied. A single operation is sufficient. 

The patented article can be imported to Russia for 
the purpose of working the invention there. 



lOO HOWSON S PATENT OFFICES. 




NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 

NORWAY. 



Term of Patent. — Ten years or under, as fixed by 
Government. Such term can in no case extend beyond 
the date at which the previous foreign patent shall expire. 

Cost. — $150. 

Note. — Invention must be worked within two years 
from the date of the grant of the patent. 



Term of Patent. — From three to fifteen years, as 
fixed by Government, usually from five to ten years. 
Such term can in no case extend beyond the date at 
which the previous foreign patent shall expire. 

Cost.— About $100. 

Note. — A valid patent can be obtained only by the 
inventor. Applications for patents are examined by a 
Board of Trade as to the merits of the inventions, but 
not as to their novelty. 

The invention must be worked within two years from 
the date of the patent, and the operation must be certified 
and proof of the operation renewed yearly during the 
continuance of the patent. 



FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. lOI 




DENMARK. 

Term of Patent. — Three to fifteen years, but to for- 
eigners seldom, if ever, for more than five years. 

Cost. — $ioo. 

Note. — Invention must be operated in Denmark 
within one year, and pperation must not afterwards be 
discontinued. 




PORTUGAL. 

Term of Patent. — Maximum fifteen years, but 
not beyond the term of previous foreign patent. No ex- 
tension granted. 

Cost. — About $520. 

Note. — The invention must be put in operation in 
Portugal within the first half of the term of the patent. 

SWITZERLAND. 

No patents granted except in one canton (Tessin), 
where the local government has the power of grantinj 
the exclusive privilege of working a patent within its ter- 
ritory. 



I02 HOWSOXS TATEXT OFFICES. 




BRAZIL. 

Term of Patext. — The duration of the patent is 
fixed by the Government, and varies from five to twenty 
years. 

Cost. — About §350. 

Note. — ^A patent becomes void (i) if not worked 
within two years from the delivery of the patent ; (2) if 
the invention be proved to be old. 

OTHER AMERICAN STATES. 

Patents can also be obtained in other South Ameri- 
can and Central American States, — Peru, New Granada, 
Paraguay, Argentine Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, 
Guatemala, Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Costo Rica. 

Cost. — About $300 for each country. 

BRITISH COLONIES. 

The colonies of India, Ceylon, New Zealand, New 
South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, 
Victoria, Cape of Good Hope, British Guiana, Jamaica, 
Trinidad, and British Honduras, grant patents under their 
own laws to foreigners as well as residents. 

Cost. — About $300 for each colony. 



Any further information in regard to foreign patents 
may be obtained on application at our offices. 



PUBLICATIONS 
OF HOWSON &. SONS, 



CERTIFICATES. 



REFERENCES. 



HOWSONS' PATENT OFFICES, 

119 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



I04 HOWSONS PATENT OFFICES. 

HOWSON 8l SONS' PUBLICATIONS. 

(i.) A Brief Treatise on Patents for Inventors and 
Patentees. By H. and C. Howson. Published by Porter 
& Coates, Philadelphia. Price, $i. 

*' I have not seen anywhere more information relating to pat- 
ents, or more correct information in such compact form." 

IIOX. ELLIS SPEAR, 
Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

" It can be unqualifiedly commended as a correct and trust- 
worthy guide." 

HON. FURMAN SIIEPPARD. 

"Your book far excels all manuals on this subject." 

DR. ED. IL KNIGHT, 
Knight's Mechanical Dictionary. 

" It is just the kind of book Avhich I have told you was wanted, 
and frequently urged you to prepare." 

HON. J. M. THACHER, 

Late Commissioner of Patents. 

" A little book which supplies a popular and legal want." 

Journal of the Franklin Institute. 

" This book of 160 pages contains more information of value t^ 
patentees than any work of its size that has come to our knowledge." 

Scientific American. 



(2.) Our Country's Debt to Patents. By H. Howson. 
Published by the United States Patent Association. 

"An essay by n. Howson, Esq., the well-known Patent Solicitor 
of this city. lie makes very happy illustrations of the far-reaching 
effect of our patent system on inventions." 

Philadelphia Ledger. 



(3.) Patents and the Useful Arts. By H. Howson. 

•* An instructive little volume." 

Henry C. Carey ^ 



HOWSON & SON'S PUBLICATIONS. I05 



" There is a great deal of curious information in the book which 
will be found more interesting than the title promises." 

St. Louis RcpuhUcan. 

" The subject has been so treated as to make it a book both inter- 
esting and instructive." 

Philadelphia Ledger. 



(4.) A Brief Inquiry into the Principles, Effects, and 
Present State of the American Patent System. By IL 
and C. Howson. (Fourth edition.) 



(5.) Third edition, revised and abridged especially 
for use at the International Patent Congress at Vienna, 
by the request of the Hon. J. M. Thacher, Assistant Com- 
missioner of Patents, and representative of the United 
States in the said Congress. 



(6.) The same work in the German language. 



(7.) Answers of Howson & Son to Questions of the 
State Department of the United States relative to Patents. 



(8.) The Keely motor criticised by PI. Howson. 



(9.) Reasons for Dispensing with Models in the Pat- 
ent Office. By H. Howson. 



(10.) Catalogue of Reference Library attached to 
Howson's Patent Offices. 



lOO I10V/S0N3 PATENT OFFICES. 

CERTIFICATES. 

Burlington, Iowa, Octobers, 1857. 

Dear Sir : — I take this occasion to state to you that 
for several years past I have been acquainted with tho 
manner in which you have conducted your business as a 
patent sohcitor. 

This has always been highly creditable to yourself 
and satisfactory to the Patent Office. 

You understood your cases well, and presented them 
in that intelligible form which generally insured success. 
I forward this certificate, hoping that it may be serviceable 
to you in continuing to find that employment in your pro- 
fession to which your intelligence, industry, and courteous 
bearing so justly entitle you. 

Yours very truly, 

CHARLES MASON, 
Late Coimnissioiier of Patents, 
Henry Howson, Esq. 



National Association of Wool Manufacturers. 

No. 55 Summer Street, 
Boston, Mass., October 6, 1865. 
My dear Sir : — It gives me great pleasure to give 
my testimony as to the manner in which you have con- 
ducted your business as a solicitor of patents, during the 
four years that I was chief clerk and executive officer of 
the United States Patent Office, and for a considerable 
period acting commissioner. 

The papers presented by you, specifications, draw- 
ings, correspondence, etc., were invariably models of 



CERTIFICATES. I07 

neatness, accuracy, and legal precision. Tliey were fre- 
quently pointed out to younger solicitors as among the 
best examples and precedents for practice in the Office. 
Your intercourse v/ith the Office was so conducted that 
all the rights of your clients were secured without per- 
sonal controversy. With the best opportunities forjudg- 
ing, I do not hesitate to say that your thorough knowledge 
of mechanics and patent law, places you in the first rank 
of solicitors of patents in the United States. 

Very truly yours, 

JOHN L. HAYES, 
Late Chief Clerk and Exectctive Officer, U* S. Fat. Office. 
H. HowsoN, Esq., Phila., Pa. 



Washington, D. C, November 20, 1865. 
I fully and cheerfully endorse the statement made by 
Mr. Hayes in the above letter, and commend Mr. Howson 
to the patronage of the inventors of the country. 

D. P. HOLLO WAY, 
Late Commissioiter of Patejits. 



Cincinnati, November 16, 1871. 
Gentlemen :— I take great pleasure in testifying to 
the ability and promptness with which you conducted 
your business before the Patent Office while I was com- 
missioner. Your cases were thoroughly, accurately, and 
neatly prepared, well presented, and strongly urged. 
I wish you every success. 

Very truly yours, 

S. S. FISHER. 
Messrs. H. Howson & Son, Philadelphia, Pa. 



io8 howsons' patent offices. 

Navy Department, Bureau of Steam Engineering, 
Washington, D. C, Aug. 29, 1874. 

I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Henry How- 
son intimately for many years, during which he has 011 
several occasions conducted patent business for me in an 
admirable manner. 

His engineering education, his long experience as a 
patent solicitor, and the high estimation he bears as an 
expert, place him among the most prominent men of his 
profession. 

I have very frequently recommended my friends who 
are interested in patent matters to engage the services of 
Mr. Howson, and the result has always been most satis- 
factory to them. 

Mr. Howson's offices in Philadelphia and Washing- 
ton are admirably organized, and every facility is afforded 
for transacting both the soliciting and legal branches of 
the profession, — the latter branch being in charge of Mr. 
Howson, Jr., who has gained a prominent position as a 
patent lawyer. 

WM. W. W. WOOD, 
Engine cr-iii-chicf U. S, Navy, 



Washington, D. C, Nov, 4, 1875. 
Messrs. HOWSON & SON. 

Gentlemen : — I regard it as only an act of justice, 
to make it my first duty, after leaving the position of 
Commissioner of Patents, to most heartily commend the 
promptness, fidelity and ability with which you conducted 
your business before the office while I was commissioner. 



CERTIFICATES. I09 

The applications filed by you were among those I 
regarded as standards in form, style and precision of 
statement. 

Yours, very truly, 

M. D. LEGGETT, 
Co77tmissioncr of Pateiits, 



Washington, D. C, Nov, i, 1878. 
Messrs. HOWSON & SON. 

Dear Sirs : — Upon leaving the office of Commis- 
sioner of Patents, I desire to express my appreciation of 
the manner in which you have conducted business before 
the office. While attending carefully and ably to the 
interests of your clients, you have facilitated the transac- 
tion of your business in the office by the skillful presenta- 
tion of your cases and your uniform fairness and courtesy. 
The high character of all your work shows the advantage 
of an extensive knowledge of the arts, as well as of 
patent law, and the further advantage of a long and varied 
experience in all the branches of the business. The 
character of your work is, no doubt, aided, in accuracy 
and promptness, by the admirable organization of your 
office (the best I ever saw), and by your extensive and 
well-selected library, which must furnish at hand all pos- 
sible information necessary to the business. It has always 
been a pleasure to me to transact business both with your- 
self and your assistants. In these days, when so many 
ignorant and unscrupulous men impose upon the office 
with their worthless and troublesome services, it is espc- 



no IIOWSONS I'ATENT OFFICES. 

cially a gratification to have honest and competent men 
to deal with. I trust, therefore, for the good of the office, 
the benefit of the pubhc, as well as for your own profit, 
that the number of your clients may never be less. 

Yours, very trulv, 

ELLIS SPEAR, 
Commissioner of Patents. 



REFERENCES. 



The following list contains the names of a few of the 
many clients for whom we have transacted Patent busi- 
ness. For many of those named in the list we have 

procured Foreign Patents, and for others we have also 
conducted suits before the Courts. 

-A. 

Atlantic Refining Co., Petroleum, Philadelphia. 

American B. H. Sewing Machine Co., 

AUentown Iron Co., Allentown, Pa. 

American Meter Co., Philadelphia. 

American Machine Co., " 

American Dredging Co., 

Asbury, H. T., Enterprise Manufacturing Co., " 

Adamson.C. B. & W. B, 

Albrecht, H., Machinist, " 

Ayres& Sons, Horse Clothing, " 

Archbold, Samuel, Mechanical Engineer, '* 

Altemus, H. T. & Co., Book Binders, 

Alberger, M. H., Telegraphy, '• 

Applegate, S. S., Electric Alarms, Camden, N. J, 

Allen, P. T., Plows, Philadelphia. 

Atwater, R. M., Glass, Millville, N. J. 

Anderson, J. W., Carriage Hardware, Lancaster, Pa. 

Albert, C. F., Musical Instruments, Philadelphia. 



B 



Brooks, David, Telegraphy, 
Baldwin Locomotive Worts, 
Bement & Son, Industrial Works, 
Bartol B. H., Sugar, 



Philadelphia. 



Burgess, Hugh, American Wood Paper Co., 

Baugh & Sons, Fertilizers, 

Butterworth, H. W. & Sons, Drying Machines, 

Bromley Bros., Carpets, 

Button & Co., Hosiery, 

Baeder, Adamson & Co., Glue, etc., 

Buford, B. B., Blows, 

Bonzano, A.. Phoenix Iron Co., 

Bibb, B. C, Stove Works, 

Budd, J. & S. W., Locks, 

Baker, J. G., Enterprise Manufacturing Co., 

Brick, S. R., Gas Works, 

Bate, W. T., Steam Boilers, 

Buntin, Geo., Car Seats, 

Backmire, Geo., Locks, 

Bachelor Bros., Segars, 

Benezet & Co., Springs, 

Bullock, C. K., Mills, 

Braun* J., Lawn Mowers, 

Burr, W. H., Steam Boilers, 

Boyd, Geo., Heaters, 

Betts, F. L., Sheet Metal Goods, 

Baxter, D. W. C, Baxter's Business Directory, 

Burnham, G., Baldwin Locomotive Vrorks, 

Bancroft, J. W., 

Boyd, J. & T. A., Winding Machines, 



Koyer's Ford, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Germantown, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 

Rock Island, III. 

Phoenixville, Pa. 

Baltimore. 

Philadelphia. 



Conshocken, Pa. 
Boston, Mass. 
Philadelphia. 



Glasgow, Scotland. 



Clarke, Reeves & Co., Bridges, 
Coffin & Altemus, Dry Goods, 
Cresson.Prof. CM., Chemist, 
Carpenter, A. E. (Houghton & Co.), 
Continous Draw Bar Co. 
Cooper, Jno. H,, People's Works, 



Philadelphia. 



Cooper, Jones & Cddbury, Brass Works, 
Cdrrow, Bishop & Co., Jewelers, 
Comly, Joshua, Street Cars, 
Cooper, W. S., Machinist, 
Cunningham, R. B., Wagons. 
Cottlngham, J. C, Ship Chandler, 
Cone, J., (Steamer Columbia), 
Custer, Christian, Mills, 
Campbell & Richards, Machinists, 
Clinton, E., Brushes, 



ID 

Disston, Henry, & Sons, Saws, Tools, etc., 

Dolan, Thos. & Co., Textile Goods, 

Dougherty, Jas., Engineer and Machinist, 

Drown, W. A., & Co., Umbrellas, 

Dieterich, D. P., Rubber Goods, 

Diamond Drill Co., 

Dick, C. J. A., Phosphor Bronze Co., 

Dietz, R. E., Sheet Metal Goods, 

Dupont, C. I., 

Denio, A. O., P. W. & B. R. R., 

Dawson & Son, Washing Compounds, 

Dyott, M. B., Lamps, 

Daniels, H. H., Locks, 

Davis, S. W., Machinist, 

Dialogue, J. H., Iron Works, 

Dienelt & Eisenhardt, Textile Machinery, 

Davis, H. C. & C. W., Furs, 

Disston, T. S., Saws and Tools, 

Disston, C, Trowels, etc. 



rhiladelphia. 
Philadelphia and New York. 
Philadelphia. 

Allen town, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Philadelphia. 



Pottsville, Pa. 

London. 

New York City. 

Wilmington, Del. 

Philadelphia. 



Wilmington, Del. 
Camden, N.J. 
Philadelphia. 



Enterprise Manufacturing Co., Hardware, Philadelphia. 

Everest, H. B., Oils, Rochester, N. Y. 



Eaton <fc Ayer, Shuttles, 

Ellis Kej^stoue Agricultural Works, 

Everett, Horace, Sheet Metal Goods, 

Eccles, J., Machinist, 

Eddystone Manufacturing Co , Dry Goods, 

Eagle Packing Co., Packing, 

Evansville Furniture Co., 

Evans, T. R., Boots and Shoes, 

Evans. S. W. & Co., Umbrella Mountings, 

Evans, W. C, Printing Presses, 

Evans, Howell, Printer, 

Eshleman, J. A., Furnishing Goods, 

Earle &Son., Fine Arts, 

English, E. B., Lime, 

Ellison, J. C, Looms, 



Kashua, N. H. 
Pott:?town, Pa. 
Philadelphia, 



Evansville, Iiid. 
Philadelphia. 



Fritz, Jno., Bethlehem Iron Works, 
Furbnsh & Son, Textile Machinery, 
Fairbanks & Ewing, Scales, 
Farmer, G. P., Buttons, 
Farrel, Franklin, Farrel Foundry, 
Flagg, Stanley G ,&Co., Founders, 
Fisher, H. H., Pipe Founder, 
Frishmuth Bros., Tobacco, 
F-oiHbes; W. D., Mechanical Engineer, 
Francis, C. S., Water Proof Goods, 
Felton, Pau & Sibley, Paints, 
Fuguet,H. T..Segars, 
Follensbee, G S., Pumps, 
Foreman. Jno., Bridges, 
Fitler, E. H., & Co., Co/dage, 
Farr.L.D., Oilcloths, 



Bethlehem, Fa. 
Philadelphia. 

New York City. 
Ansonia, Conn. 

Philadelphia. 
Allentown, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 

Buffalo, N. Y. 
Spring City, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 

Lewiston, Maine. 

Pottstown, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 



C3- 



Gray, H. W., Schomacker Piano Co., Philadelphia. 

Griscom & Co., Millstone Dressing Machines, Pottsville, ?a. 

Griscom, Clement A., Peter Wright & Sons, Philadelphia. 

Griscom, W. W., Electrician, " 

Griffen, J., Phoenix Iron Co., Phoenixville, Pa. 

Gerard, J„ Trenton Lock Co. Trenton, N- J. 

Gillis & Goeghegan, Steam Fitters, New York City. 

Galloway, W., Pottery, Philadelphia. 

Gutekunst, F., Photographs, " 

Gregory, C. B., Smokeless Furnaces, Beverly, N. J. 

Golding & Co., Pottery, Trenton, N. J. 

Gorman, J. J., Contractor, Philadelphia. 

Goldsborough, J., Hand Stamps, 
Greasley, £., Knitted Goods, 
Gillinder & Bennett, Glass, 
Gallagher, A. B. & Co., Distillers, 
Goodyear, R. B., Looms, 
Glanding, Jas., Packing, 
Grove, W. H., Shov,^ Cases, 



sz 



Horstmann & Co., Trimmings, etc., 

Harrison, Havemeyer & Co., Sugar, 

Harrison Boiler Works, 

Harris, Griffin & Co., Gas Meters, 

Hoopes & Townsend, Bolts and Nuts, 

Hein Coupling Co., Car Couplings, 

Hale & Kilburn Manufacturing Co., Furniture, 

Harrison, A. C, 

Houghton, E. F. & Co., Cosmoline, 

Hastings & Co., Gold Beaters, 

Hussey, Wells & Co., Steel, 



Philadelphia. 



Rock Island, 111. 
Philadelphia. 



Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Hall & Carpenter, Sheet Metal, 

Ilirsh Bros., Umbrellas, 

Harper, J. H., Watches, 

,Harper, H. W., Slates, 

Harvey & Ford, Turners, 

Hart, Abram, 

Hamilton, C. K., Paper Boxes, 

Herzberg, A. & I., Jewellers, 

Heald, A., Carpets, 

Hill, Jas., Flour Mill, 

Hien, P., Hien Coupling Co., 

Hover, E. F., Inks, 

Hasten Bros., Carriages, 

Hub Clutch Co., 

Heckendorn & Wilhelm, Machinists, 

Henshall, Sam'l, Sewing Machines, 

Harrison, W. H., Mechanical Engineer, 

Hamilton, M. J., Steel, 



Philadelphia. 



Slatington, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Wilkesbarre, Pa. 

Rock Island, 111. 

Philadelphia. 



Heading, Pa, 

Philadelphia. 

New Castle, Pa, 

Afton, Iowa. 



Jones, E. H., Vulcan Iron Works, 
Jones, Washington, I. P. Morris & Co., 
Jenkins, C. C, Governors, 
Johnston, E. H , R. R. Frogs and Switches^ 
Jarvis Furnace Company , Furnaces, 



Wilkesbarre, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Boston, Mass. 



Knickerbocker Ice Co., 
Keystone Portable Forge Co., 
Kershaw, Thos., Carding Engines, 
Kaye & Kaye, Locks, 



Philadelphia. 



Bradfjrd, England. 



Lobdell, G. G., Car Wheels, 

Love, Jno. C, Sewing Machines, 

Landenberger, Martin, Textile Goods, 

Lauth, Bernard, Rolling Mills, 

Lauth, B. C, Rolling Mills, 

Lucas, John, & Co., Paints, 

Lowthorp, F. C, Civil Engineer, 

Legrand, CD., Wagons, 

Lehman, B. E., Brass Goods, 

Lukens, J., Alan Wood & Co., 

Luders, T. L., Phosphor Bronze Co., 

Lyons, C. W., E. F. Houghton & Co., 

Lever, J. S., Book Binder, 

Lippincott, C. H., Soda Water Apparatus, 

Leopoldt, C. F., Wire Cutters, 

Leinbach & Wolle, Paper Bags, 

Loeb & Schoenfeld, Laces, etc., 

Lane, A. T., Window Shades 

Lloyd, Supplee & Walton, Hardware, 

Lightfoot, B. H., 

Langham, T., Knitting Mills, 



Wilmington, Del. 
Philadelphia. 

Howard, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 

Trenton, N. J. 

Wilkesbarre, Pa. 

Bethlehem, Pa. 

Conshohocken, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 



Bethlehem, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Elwood, N. J. 



Middleton, N. & A., Car Springs, 

Mc Galium, Crease & Sloan, Carpets, 

Moore, Jas., Bush Hill Iron Works, 

Mason & Co., Blacking, 

Mellor & Rittenhouse, Manufacturing Chemists, 

Mitchell, A., Supt. Lehigh Valley R. R., 

Merrick, J. V., 

Merrick, W. H., 

Meyer & Dickinson, Laces, etc., 



Philadelphia. 



Wilkesbarre, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Michener, A. J., 

Manhattan Packing Co., 

Miller Lock Co., Locks, 

Mc Arthur, J., Architect, 

Miles, F. B., Machinist, 

Moran, T., Artist, 

Miller, J., Michigan Central R. R., 

Mead& Graham, Engineers, 

Mills & Combs, Wagons, 

Munro, Geo., Lasts, 

Maule Bros., Lumber, 

Murphy's Sons, Stationers, 

Moss & Co., Stationers, 

Mott, G. S., Telegraphy, 

Msertens, E., Scheppers Bros, 

Morrison, G. W., Furnaces, 

McFerran, J. A., Physician,— Pill Machinery, 

Muhr's, H., Sons, Jewellers, 



Watkiiis, N. Y. 

New York. 

Philadelphia. 



Newark, N. J. 

Detroit, Mich. 

Middlet'jwn, N. Y. 

Wilmington, Del. 

Philadelphia. 



Nixon, Martin, Paper, 

Noble, Chas. & Co., Stoves, 

Norwalk Lock Co., Locks, 

National Sewing Machine Co., Limited, 

Norris, Thaddeus, 

Neafie & Levy, Ship and Engine Builders, 

Nevegold, Seheide & Co., Rolling Mill, 

Nittinger, A., Jr., Butchers' Tools, 



Philadelphia. 

Norwalk, Conn. 
Philadelphia. 



Bristol, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



o 



Orr, Painter & Co., Stoves, 
Opdyke, S. B., 



Reading, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Phoenix Iron Co., 

Pancoast& Maulc, Pipe, etc., 

Pendleton, F. P., Jas. Smith & Co., 

Potts, Mrs. M. F., Sad Irons, 

Phoenix Plate Co., Photograph Plates, 

Phosphor Bronze Co., 

Pennock, Jos. L., Polling Mills, 

Perry & Co., Stoves, 

Poole, J. Morton, & Co., Chilled Rolls, 

Philadelphia Burring Machine Co, 

Parry, C. T., Baldwin Locomotive Works, 

Pearce, C. P., Rock Drills, 

Powell, J. G., Sewing Machine Attachments, 

Powell, Thos., Burglar Alarms, 

Powell, J. B., Spring Motors, 

Pratt & Farmer, Buttons, etc., 

Perot, T. Morris, Drugs, 

Pleasanton, Gen. A. L., 

Philadelphia Lock Co., Locks, 

Pott, J. L., Engineer, 

Packer & Sons, Machinists, 

Packer, C. W., Ice Cream Freezers, 

Parry, J. L., Mechanical Engineer, 

Pike & Dean, Machinists, 

Peberdv, G., Knitting, 



Phoenixville, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Worcester, Mass. 

Philadelphia. 
Coatesville, Pa. 

Albany, N. Y. 
Wilmington, Del. 

Philadelphia. 



New York City. 
Philadelphia. 



Pottsville, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



le 



Keyburn, Hunter & Co., Lightning Rods, 
Reading Hardware Co., Hardware, 
Ridgway, Jacob E., Street Cars, 
Riddle, S., & Sons, Textile Goods, 
Rice, J., Contractor, 



Philadelphia. 
Reading, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 
Glen Riddle, Pa. 
Philadelphfa. 



Ileeves, S. J., Phoenix Iron Co., 
Rehfuss, G. Sewing Machines, 
Reynolds, Jesse, Heaters, 
Read, G. W., Lumber, 
Reading Iron Works, 
Richards, C. B., Colt's Arms Co., 
Rohrmann, J. Hall, Sheet Metal Goods, 
Rapp, B. R., Thill Couplings. 
Rodgers, Prof. R. E., 
Rohrbacher & Horrman, Glass, 
Rowland, W. & H., Iron and Steel, 
Rumpp, C. F., Pocket Books, 
Rankin, A., Locks, 
Rinek, J., Cordage, 
Raymond & Campbell, Stoves, 
Ringwalt, J. L., Editor, 
Rue, Theodore, Stencils, etc., 
Roelofs, A., Shade Fixtures, 



Phoenixville, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 

New York City. 

Reading, Pa. 

New Haven, Conn. 

Philadelphia. 

West Chester, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 



Easton, Pa. 

Middletown, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 



Smith, Jas., &. Co., Cotton and Woolen Mill Supplies, 

Sparks, T. W., Shot, 

Schomacker Piano Co., Pianos, 

Scovill Manufacturing Co., 

Sheppard, Hon. Furman, 

Stuart, Peterson & Co., Stoves, 

Sheppard, Isaac A., Stoves, 

Shantz & Keely, Stoves, 

Searle, J. Q. C, Stoves, 

Spencer, Chas., Hosiery, 

Schofield & Branson, Knitted Goods, " 

Stokes & Parrish, Hoisting Machines, " 

Sternberger, L., Shirts, " 

Steele & Condict, Engineers, etc., Jersey City, N.J. 



Philadelphia. 



Bridgeport and New York City. 
Philadelphia. 



Spring City, Pa. 
Cincinnati, O. 
Philadelphia. 



Southern Machine Works, 

Susemihl, F. C. L. G., Michigan C. R. R., 

Stubblebine, Wm., Bethlehem Iron Works, 

Schaubel, H., Steam Boilers, 

Smith, Orren M., Umbrella Runners, etc., 

Storer, G. W., Machinery, 

Snediker, Jas. F., Machinist, 

Schofield & Wilde, Woolen, 

Sleeper, Wells & Aldrich, Canned Goods, 

Scharff, A., Whips, 

Struthers & Sons, Marble, 

Stewart & Mattson, Locks, etc., 

Scheppers Bros., Woven Goods, 

Sayre, J. W., Slates, 



Evansville, Ind. 

Detroit, Mich. 
Bethlehem, Pa. 

Philadelphia. 



Burlington, N. J. 
Philadelphia. 
Philadelphia. 



Martin's Creek, Pa. 



1' 

Trautwine, J. C. T., Civil Engineer, Philadelphia. 

Tatham & Bro., Lead, *' 

Trenton Lock Co., Locks and Hardware, Trenton, N. J. 

Thackara, Buck & Co., Gas Fixtures, Philadelphia. 

Taylor Co., N. & G., Tin Plate, " 
Thompson, Sir Wm., Electrician, Glasgow, Scotland. 

Tatham, H. B., Jr., Philadelphia. 

Thorne, DeHaven & Co., Tools, " 
Travis, T. W., Iron Cross Ties, 

Troemner, II. W., Scales, " 

Tryon, E. K., Fire Arms, " 



TJ 



Union Paper Collar Co. 

Upton, Wm., Jar vis Furnace Co., 

Uhlinger, W. P., Machinist, 



New York City. 
Boston, Mass. 
Philadelphia. 



Vacuum Oil Co., 

Vance, J. M., & Co., Hardware, 



Rochester, N. Y. 
Philadelphia. 



Wright, Peter, & Sons, Importers, 

Wootten, J. E., Gen'l Manager Reading H. R. Co. 

Warden, Frew & Co., Oils, 

Wharton, Wm., Switches, etc., 

Whitall, Tatum & Co., Glass, 

Wood, Alan <t Co., Iron, 

Wheeler, Elbridge, Combined Iron and Steel, 

Wright Bros., Umbrellas, 

Wells & Hope Co., Metal Signs, 

Warner & Co., Medicines, 

Wilbraham Bros-, Machinists, 

Warren, Lober & Co., Roofing, 

Wood, W. W. W., late Chief Engineer U. S. N., 

Wallick, W , Mouldings, 

Williams, Isaac, Hardware, Furnishing Goods, 

Weston, T. A., Weston's Pully Blocks, 

Wurflein, Wm., Fire Arms, 

Wilson, T. A. & Co., Spectacles, 

Woodbury, J. A., Car Wheels, 

Wright Steam Engine Works, 

Ward, J. F., Civil Engineer, 

Wahl, Prof. W. H., 

Wenderoth, F. A., Photography, 

Wilson, E. L., Photography, 

Woodside, G. W., Printing, 

Wood, H., Sup't Media R. R., 

Wiler, W., Stair Rods, Brass Work, etc., 

Warner, C. Y., Morocco, 

Wellens, J. C, Embroidering Machines, 



Philadelphia. 



Conshohocken, Pa. 
Philadelphia. 



Washington, D. C. 
Philadelphia. 

Stamford, Conn. 

Philadelphia. 
Reading, Pa. 

Boston, Mass. 
Newburg, N. Y. 
Jersey City, N. J. 

Philadelphia. 



Philadelphia. 

Wilmington, Del. 
Philadelphia. 




Copyright-1880-HOWSON & SON. 



HENRY DISSTON & SON-SAW HANDLE. 




MEAD & GRAHAM-STEAM BOILER. 



^ 


1 
I 




''2&X. 


1 


^ 


, ^-^^T-fc- 


^^ 


„^^^ 


■■ a ■! 1 -|^ 




ENTERPRISE MFG. CO. 
MACHINE FOR MAKING SAD-IRON HANDLES. 



jrjr<z.^ 



W///M 










- 


1 




PHILADELPHIA BURRING MACHINE COMPANY. | 






WOOL-WASHER. 










'e^^ 








"'^ 1 o 


#^ 








■^ /^ 


^ ^7 


h-^ 




x^ 


^ToX^^^^^^j^^ 


^ 


^ 


/SI \ 








^^^^^^^^^ 


yc/ \ 








^^^K 


S^ "^ iJi 








^1^^ 


^^^m^^^ji 


^^^^^^^^rU 


/^ 




^3 


^^^^^^^^^1 


s 


if 


\^ 




^ 








^K^// 


/ 








^/ 


J 








'^ 


w 




k 




^ 


p 




# 



POWELL-SPRING MOTOR. 



J^JiG.^ 



Zia. 3. 




RAPP.-MOULDING PLASTIC MATERIALS. 




NITTINGER -MEAT CHOPPER. 




THE ORIGINAL OF THIS DRAWING AND THE SPECIFICATION RELATING TO IT WERE SPECIALLY 
PREPARED AT THESE OFFICES. FOR THE U. S PATENT OFFICE RULES OF JANUARY, 1880. 



CLARK, REEVES & CO. 
COLUMN, N. Y. ELEVATED R. R. 




Wzzi 



WHARTON SWITCH CO.-FROQ. 




ENTERPRISE MFG. CO. & AMERICAN MACH. CO. 
MRS. POTTS' SADIRCN.-RE-ISSUE. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 973 319 9 



v.:^'i;'^ 

■•mm' 

• { f m 

,.'. T ;- i W 






